


Life Happens When You're Drinking Coffee at Starbucks

by Misscar



Series: Life Happens [1]
Category: Daria (Cartoon)
Genre: Adoption, Angst and Humor, Angst with a Happy Ending, Coming Out, Coming of Age, Dark Comedy, Dealing with a sick parent, Divorce, Eating Disorders, F/F, F/M, First Love, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Heart Attacks, High School Never Ends, Implied or Off-stage Rape/Non-con, LGBTQ Character, Longest Quinn story ever, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Minor Character Death, Moving On, Parenthood, Prostitution, References to Homophobia, Romantic Comedy, Secret Identity, Suicide Attempt, Teen Angst, Unplanned Pregnancy, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-30
Updated: 2013-02-05
Packaged: 2017-11-27 13:42:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 17
Words: 117,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misscar/pseuds/Misscar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At 16, Quinn Morgendorffer was a conceded little nightmare who dreamed of becoming a supermodel. By 28, she doesn't resemble that person at all and she is proud of that. How did that happen? A post graduation story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One: Evolution of a Supposedly Former Self-absorbed Fashion Queen

**Author's Note:**

> Rated T for sarcasm and adult situations
> 
> I began posting this story in November 2010 and finished in December 2012. This is a slightly revised version.  
> The story is complete but I am reposting chapters as I proofread again.  
> This is my first Daria story, but not my first story. I've been writing since April of 09 but reading since 2001. I watched Daria from the beginning. It was part of my survival strategy for high school. I was a cross between Quinn and Daria during those four years of torture. I was a Brain, but I was also on prom court. I was well liked and well hated. Now that the show is on DVD, I wanted to try doing a Daria story. This was supposed to be a one-shot, but somehow it ended up over 120,000 words and took two years to complete.
> 
> I am unbelievably dyslexic. I wrote this story using voice recognition software. This essentially means I can write like Daria, but I spell and proofread like Kevin. Teddy Bear, who normally works on my Star Trek stories, graciously look this over even though she has never seen Daria before. (It's not her fault, she lives in Australia.) All remaining mistakes are mine.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters. However, most of those are parodies of actual famous people in this story.

Evolution of a Supposedly Former Self-absorbed Fashion Queen  
At 16, Quinn Morgendorffer thought she had her entire life figured out. She was very delusional in her fashion club heyday. At 17, she would start her modeling career and become an instant overnight sensation. By 19, she would begin dating a member of Boys or Guys. Everyone would be jealous of her and she would love it. By 21, Quinn would be either starting her music career or starring in her very own TV show called Quinn. Finely at 23, she would start her own fashion label along with her very own line of fragrances called Scent of Quinn.

For some reason at 16, Quinn really didn't think beyond age 23 or the glamorous life. 16-year-old Quinn was never planning on getting married or having children. She would become immortalized on the pages of all the fashion magazine she worshiped as a teenager. She would travel the world and never come back to the suburban hell known as Lawndale. Quinn would be everything Sandi and the rest of her fashion club friends dreamed of back then.

Now at almost 28 Quinn, wonders what her 16 year old self was thinking. Quinn never became a fashion model nor did she even want to be one anymore. Due to very low test scores and being rejected by the first guy she ever really cared about beyond the superficial, Quinn realized she was more than a pretty face. Even though David managed to break her heart in little pieces, he taught Quinn that she was more than the beautiful popular girl who all the boys wanted to date. He was the first person that she allowed to see the real Quinn.

After David, she couldn't go back to being the self centered princess that she was before, at least to some degree. During junior year, she stopped acting stupid just to be popular. She brought her GPA up from barely passing to a solid 3.00, despite the fact that it pissed Sandi off.

Even with a vast amount of studying junior year, she still managed to do a lot of damage to her mother's credit card. That led to an after school job and her real first friend. Lindy helped Quinn let go of her last bits of shallowness and Quinn helped her through rehab. 11 years later, Lindy was still there for her.

She was actually one of the few people Quinn stayed in contact with from that time. She stopped talking to Sandi senior year when she finally got tired of the mental mind games. She kept in touch with Stacy for a little while after high school, eventually the phone calls got farther and farther apart until they just stopped altogether. The last time she saw Stacy was at Tiffany's funeral. Tiffany's obsession with being skinny led to her demise two years post high school. She died of complications of anorexia at 20.

During senior year between helping her friend get clean and listening to her parents scream at each other, she discovered that like her sister she enjoyed writing. It gave her something to do. Her relationships with the other former fashion club members were already in serious decline. It wasn't like she was going on that many dates anymore.

By senior year, she realized it was wrong only to go out with someone for a free dinner, when she could barely tolerate the person. Quinn was starting to learn that she really didn't have that much in common with her former friends except that she liked wearing nice things.

Unlike Daria, Quinn liked writing about happy things. She started writing stories about couples falling in love and staying that way. She wrote about the brilliant fashion model with a serious drug problem cleaning up her act because she fell in love with her assistant. She even wrote a story about the spoiled high school fashion queen that fell in love with her brain of a tutor called Tutor for the Heart. Okay, so maybe in that story she was exercising some of her David issues. It didn't mean anything.

Writing was what helped her get through that year that everything changed. By the end of senior year, Quinn had a cumulative 3.45 GPA and was awarded a small scholarship for Pepperhill University. She sent a copy of the scholarship announcement to David, just to prove she was not as one dimensional as he thought she was.

In addition to being a top party school, Pepperhill had excellent business and writing programs. 10 years later Quinn could admit that the main reason she went to school in California was to be a good 3000 miles from a screaming Helen and Jake. She slept over at Lindy's house a lot that year.

Two months after she left for California, her parents started divorce proceedings. That did horrible things to her psyche and college fund despite the scholarship. Really, she was just happy the fighting stopped. Daria was devastated, not that she would admit it. Fortunately, she had her new grad student boyfriend Nikki to console her. They actually got engaged the next year.

To help pay for college, Quinn worked as a personal assistant to aging pop princess and former fashion model Lindsey Snow. She was really popular in the early nineties before she got pregnant by her manager and spent a lot of time at Quiet Ivy for 'postpartum depression'. A year later he left her for the next big thing, a sluty blonde with big breast and no talent.

Quinn got the job because Daria's boyfriend happened to know Lindsay Snow personally. Essentially, Quinn was a glorified baby sitter who scheduled appointments and made sure Lindsey didn't choke on her own vomit during her sleep. Lindsey Snow had some serious issues with that substance referred to by her last name, partying, drinking, and being arrested a lot.

Once upon a time, Quinn actually wanted to be a lot like Lindsey, until she experienced everything first hand. The lack of privacy and being surrounded by fake people at all times that claim to love you no longer interested her. The whole experience made Quinn happy she never obtained her model or pop star dreams. After living on the inside, the beautiful people stop seeming that beautiful.

Quinn also helped take care of Lindsay's twin daughters Chloe and Bianca because Lindsey continued to scare the regular nannies away. Chloe was a mini Quinn. At five, when they first met, her favorite things were teddy bear backpacks, Barbies, boys, and shopping. Bianca was the opposite. She rather read a book than play with her Barbie dolls. Bianca was so much like Daria that sometimes Quinn wondered if there was a mix up at the hospital. Those two had to be related.

It wasn't that bad of a job. She got to live in a fabulous house in Malibu, travel all over the world, wear really nice clothes that she didn't always pay for, and still had time to study. She didn't have a lot of time for dating or college parties, but getting to go to all the best post Grammy parties as her boss's handler, more than made up for it.

She absolutely loved spending time with the girls as they began to grow up. That was the best part of the job. The only major downside was it took Quinn an extra year to graduate because she was taking a lighter class load. However, she got a lot of real world experience with the entertainment industry. She could learn more sitting in on one of Lindsey's business meetings than a week's worth of classes.

Her time as Lindsey Snow's assistant also led to Quinn's current career as a writer. Due to spending vast quantities of time in rehab, Lindsey Snow wasn't as popular as she used to be when Quinn was in middle school. Her last record peaked at number 29 on the charts and was essentially trashed by the critics.

However, everyone was still interested in her crazy private life. According to her sisters best friend Jane, who still watched the show religiously after becoming a graphic artist in New York, Lindsey Snow was featured on Sick Sad World at least once a month.

Because of that, Lindsey's manager came up with the brilliant idea to do a biography. Ms. Snow was completely against the idea. She didn't want to tell her entire story to some ghost writer she didn't know that would twist everything around. After working with her for five years, Quinn could attest that there were lots of things that Lindsey Snow would not want to become public knowledge.

"What if the writer was not a complete stranger? Would you be willing to tell your story to someone you know?" Sarah Nixon, Lindsey's manager and enabler asked one afternoon at the Starbucks by Lindsey's house where the patrons do not recognize her. Sarah became Lindsey's manager after the breakup with Chloe and Bianca's father eight years earlier. Quinn personally felt Sarah allowed her client to get away with too much because she mostly saw her as a revenue source and not a person. Despite that, Sarah was a good agent. At least, she did not suggest doing a reality show.

"Maybe, if you can find somebody. Good luck with that." She said with a snicker as she drinks her Starbucks soy latte. That was a good day because Lindsey Snow was sober. Apparently, the last round actually worked. Quinn hoped it would because she was getting very tired of driving the girls to see their mom in rehab. As much as everybody tried to hide it from the children, they knew what their mom really was.

"What about that reporter Cindy Williams from Vantage point. You love that show." Sarah asked as she continued to drink her juice. Sarah didn't do caffeine. Quinn was the same way until college when she was trying to balance her classes with her job. Caffeine became a necessity.

"I think I slept with her husband or was it girlfriend. I cannot remember anymore. I think I was on the blue pills at the time. Also, she said something nasty about the girls. Try harder Sarah." She said in her normal dismissive way.

Sarah then proceeded to go through a list of 20 writers or journalists that could write the book. Lindsey refused to work with everyone on the list due to various personal issues ranging from throwing up on their shoes to sleeping with their child.

"Just give up Sarah. I burned a lot of bridges in this town. The only person I know that can write and I trust not to crucify me is Quinn." Lindsey said pointing at her.

"That's right, you are a writing major." Quinn just rolled her eyes when Sarah said that. Sarah was never one to actually pay attention to anything but the bottom line. She called Chloe by the wrong name all the time.

"Actually that was my minor. I graduated three months ago in May. I majored in business. I'm not a writer. My sister is the writer. She has a play coming out on Broadway in two months. What I do on my computer is just a stress relief activity." High school Quinn, would have been very unhappy admitting that her sister was better at something been her. Adult Quinn, was okay with it.

"The only reason why that dark misery stuff your sister writes is successful is because she married a Backstreet Boy and he is staring in the production." Lindsey said with a hint of irritation.

"Nikki Bryant was a member of Boys or Guys. He also has a doctorate in mathematics and can quote the most obscure philosophers. He only acts now because it's challenging. Didn't you actually date him after the divorce?" Quinn asked her boss with a laugh.

That was the greatest irony of everything. Daria was the one who married a member of Boys or Guys. When Nikki was not on tour or recording, he studied at Raft under a pseudonym. Daria did not even know his secret identity as a boy band member, until their six-month anniversary. Nikki was nowhere near as Hollywood as Lindsey Snow. The guy that Quinn was in love with in high school was an absolute genius, who only started singing with the group for tuition money.

"Yes, for someone who wore that much sequence onstage, he was highly depressing. He kept quoting from books that I never heard of before." That didn't surprise Quinn at all.

"I think that's why my sister loves him so much. They're perfect for each other." They really were. It also helped that Daria really didn't care that Nikki was famous, though she did make a lot of jokes about his former occupation.

"A match made in genius hell. Quinn, I remember the stories that you use to tell the girls before bedtime when you first got here. I have even read some of your other papers and stories. You're really good." Praise from her boss was a very rare commodity. Usually, there was a lot of yelling.

"You read my stories? Wait, how could you read any of my work?" Writing was something she did to relieve stress, when the stores were closed and the girls were asleep. She had everything on her password protected laptop.

"Bianca always sends me your latest stuff when I'm in rehab. You really need to change your password on your laptop. I enjoyed your diary entries from high school. They were hilarious. Did you really have three guys following you around like lost puppies?" Lindsey asked with a small laugh.

"Yes, but it turns out I was just functioning as the cover for two of the three guys. Joey and Jeffy came out in college. It turned out they were in love with each other the entire time but didn't say anything. Lawndale high was not exactly the best place for anybody who wasn't perfectly normal, whatever normal is. That reminds me, I need time off to go to a commitment ceremony in November. Did you just distract me from the fact that your daughter broke into my computer and sent you my private diary?" Quinn shouldn't be surprised. By age 10, Bianca was a skilled hacker. Again, Bianca was so much like her sister, it was scary.

"How long have you known my children? That's completely irrelevant. You are talented. Besides, you will be a ghost writer. No one will know that you wrote the biography. You're the only one I trust not too completely destroy me. Besides, you already know things that are highly unflattering and you never went to the tabloids." She never went to the tabloids because it would hurt the girls.

"Good point. Fine, I will do it." Quinn finally said in acquiescence. She would later regret this decision.

Like most of the things in her life, the book thing didn't go exactly as planned. First, Lindsey made her the co-writer of the biography. No one argues with Lindsey Snow. Quinn still despises the image chosen for the book jacket.

Second, Lindsey was killed in a car accident the week before the book was to come out. That automatically made it a bestseller. After 13 months of sobriety, Lindsey was killed by an intoxicated driver during her late-night/early morning run around the neighborhood. The Idiot socialite managed to take out both Lindsey and her bodyguard.

She remembered telling the girls like it was yesterday. Chloe cried so much, it reminded her of Stacy at Tiffany's funeral, over three years earlier. Bianca retreated into herself and didn't leave her suite for three days, except those few hours when she camped outside the bathroom when Chloe locked herself inside. Quinn remembered bringing food that neither girl would touch. The whole thing was a nightmare.

The day of the funeral, Daria found her hiding in her usual spot, at her usual Starbucks drinking, a nonfat salted carmel hot chocolate. Quinn just needed a quiet place to think after the craziness of the private funeral and the public memorial service. Quinn wished Lindy could have come out for support but she couldn't leave her DC base decorating business behind for too long.

"I hate this place. It's overpriced and pretentious. It reminds me a lot of the high school you. Why are you hiding out here?" Daria said sitting next to her.

"It's quiet and nobody will bother me here. I used to come here all the time with Lindsey. This is like the only place she could go out in public where people did not mob her. You're sitting in her normal seat." Quinn said barely looking up at her sister.

"Do you want me to move?" Daria asked her.

Their relationship was a lot better now that they were adults. It probably helped that she stopped referring to Daria as her cousin. It is also a lot easier to get along with someone when most of the time they lived on the other side of the country or in a different country. However, Quinn was happy her sister was in town, because Nikki was shooting a new movie in the area.

"What's the point? She's dead. I just couldn't stay in that house with all those people who pretended to be her friends. Most of those people hung out around her for the drugs and the free clothing. Her parents are the worst. To see them crying in front of the camera like that was sickening. They've always seen their daughter as their meal ticket. Even though mom and dad were kind of crazy growing up, they still loved us." Quinn said looking up at her sister, with watery eyes. For days, she has been trying to be as strong as possible, but she couldn't do it anymore.

"Yes, they were kind enough to wait until after we were both out of the house to divorce. I still can't believe mom married Eric." Daria said with a little shiver.

"Please, don't remind me. He's the worst stepfather ever. He doesn't even remember our names. I hate funerals." Quinn said as she took another drink of her hot chocolate after wiping away her tears.

"Quinn, everybody hates funerals."

"Are you sure? You were always into morbid stuff. I think Jane likes funerals."

"That's because she likes sketching people. Apparently, morning people make good subjects."

"Lindsay left me custody of the girls." Quinn said without looking at her sister. She was absolutely shocked when the lawyer told her that.

"It's obvious that they love you and you love them. They made me come get you. They're currently hiding in my car." Daria pointed to the two 11 year olds in her BMW that were currently fawning over her husband who was trying to hide behind shades and a baseball cap.

"I can't believe they did that." Quinn said with a laugh and a sigh.

"They were worried about you."

"Can you actually picture me as a mom?" Quinn asked her sister in all sincerity.

"Yes," Quinn wasn't expecting to hear that.

"What?" She asked her sister in shock.

"Way back in high school, Mr. O'Neill made me write this crazy story involving people I know and a card game because I read everything on the syllabus that semester. After going through half a notebook, I wrote a story about the future where the four of us played a family card game. Mom and dad were still married, I was an editorial columnist, and you were married to one of the Js with a dozen children. You were nowhere near as pretentious as your High School self, with less flattering clothing. The only part of that story that I now see coming true is you being a mom. You've been a mom to Chloe and Bianca for years, because of their mother's addiction issues. You're good at it."

"That's not true. You're not a journalist, but you're still a writer. You've won awards. Mom and dad may not be married to each other anymore but they are happy. There even friends again. They get along better now. At their commitment ceremony last year, Jaffe asked me to be there surrogate." She smiled remembering that conversation.

"I hope you said no, since you still can't remember his name." Daria said in her normal dried tone. That made her laugh, a little.

"Of course. I'm not ruining this figure for anything less than a Tiffany Princess cut engagement ring." Quinn said with a laugh.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same. I've seen you with the girls the last couple of days. You are the only thing keeping them together. She wouldn't have trusted you to be their guardian, if she didn't think you could do it." Daria said in reassurance.

"Are you sure I should take care of preteens? If I didn't live at that house for free, I would probably blow all my rent money on shoes. I'm the reason why most of our pets died as children. I was too busy being popular to remember to feed our fish."

"At least, it's your money now. Also, children usually tell you when you forget to feed them. You can do this. Don't repeat this to anyone, but I believe in you."

"You know I will have to share that." Quinn said with a smirk.

"Please don't. Now let's get back to the car before your new charges drive my husband crazy."

"Please, your husband used to be in a boy band. He's used to crazy preteens." Quinn said as she placed her cup in the trash and walked out to Daria's car. They caught the three in the middle of a wonderful rendition of the Boys or Guys classic, I Want You to Love Me That Way but Not Really.

In her original life plan, she never anticipated being a single mom at 24 or a mother at all. However, that's life. They stayed in Malibu, but moved into a different house without so many memories. Quinn toured around the U.S. with the girls promoting the book that summer. They treated it like one long vacation. She wrote a lot during that time.

Sarah, who was now her manager, managed to turn Quinn's ramblings into her own publishing deal. Quinn wrote under the pseudonym Melody Powers. Only Daria understood the reference. By the age of 28 (almost), she will have four books published, not including the biography and a fifth on the way.

During that first year of parenthood when the mansion got too much for her, she would sneak down to Lindsey's Starbucks. It reminded Quinn of her dead friend. Being there made her feel comfortable.

That's how Quinn met her husband. Jonathan was a struggling actor working at the Malibu Starbucks for the benefits. Sometimes Quinn wonders if he only talked to her that day because of her industry connections. At the time that never crossed her mind.

In the beginning, she thought he was sweet and funny. She didn't care that he couldn't take her to the best restaurants because she could take herself. She didn't care about his car because she had her own BMW, actually she had three.

She liked him for him. Too bad, he didn't like her for her. If it wasn't for her sister's newly acquired tack, she would probably tell Quinn this was karma for all the guys she used in high school.

In hindsight, Quinn realizes that he used her to launch his career. He used her contacts to get the lead role on some new high school drama on the CW. When it got picked up he asked Quinn to marry him even though they had only been dating for seven months. The wedding that happened three months later was something straight out of a fairy tale. She wanted a small wedding as not to expose the girls and he wanted it to be a spectacle. So at 25, Jake walked her down the aisle as her mom pointed out to her older sister how much more extravagant Quinn's wedding was or the fact that Grandmother Barksdale didn't have to pay for it.

Three months after the wedding Jonathan scored the starring role in the most likely summer BlockBuster of 2009. Six months later, he was screwing his costar. Six months after that Quinn found out about it. Actually, it was Chloe who found out about it in the worst possible way and told Quinn. By age 27, Quinn's marriage was over.

The day she filed for divorce, Daria found her hiding in another Starbucks drowning her sorrows in cappuccino. This was not Lindsey's Starbucks but another one of few miles away.

"Do you know how hard you are to find? Fortunately, your genius daughter had the ideal to use your cell phone to track you. Bianca scares me."

"I was coming back. I'm not depressed, just pissed off. I guess I should be happy that mom forced me to have a prenuptial agreement." Quinn said with a very bitter laugh.

She knew that they were worried about her. She may have reenacted a certain scene from Waiting to Exhale after she found out that Jonathan was screwing someone else. Fortunately, her manager knew a good lawyer.

"Quinn you have a right to be upset after what happen. I know he broke your heart. However, you can't run away from everyone."

"What do you know about having a broken heart Daria?" She said with a touch of anger. "You have been happily married for over six years to your second boyfriend ever. In a celebrity marriage, that's the equivalent to being married for 50 years. You're still friends with the first guy that you allowed in your heart. You were a bridesmaid at his wedding. You even spoke at his class at Lawndale high. You didn't have your daughter walk in on your husband with the other woman. Why are you even here?"

"I lost the coin toss with Lindy, who came all the way up from DC, to be with you in your time of need. I was only a bridesmaid at Tom's wedding because he married Jodie Landon. I only spoke at his class because I was curious about how he was handling being a public school teacher. Also there was the added irony of his brother in law being one of his students."

That was another one of those crazy love stories that seems straight out of one of Quinn's novels. According to Daria, the two started dating when Jodie was forced to be an intern at the Sloane family investment firm. Jodie was the brilliant junior partner who saved the firm from the financial meltdown. Jodie also forced Tom to do what he really wanted to do which was to torture high school students. It was a wonderful love story. At the moment, love and happiness made Quinn want to throw up.

"I think this is karma. Remember all those guys I used in high school for free dinners or rides to the mall. I hurt a lot of people with my shallowness. I was even afraid to let people know that you were my sister. This is how the universe repays me for being conceded and stuck up. Jonathan did to me exactly what I did to everyone else." Quinn said with a bitter laugh.

"Quinn, I seriously doubt the universe is out to get you. Jonathan was an ass. You're not a bad person, not even back then. You're a good mom and sister now that you no longer refer to me as your cousin."

"You are married to a celebrity. That has to count for something." Quinn said with a smile.

"If you were that same person you were in high school I doubt you would be writing under the pseudonym Melody Powers. You would probably be on Oprah twice a month."

"I prefer literature this week. I just want to give the girls some normalcy. Now the press is camped out on our front lawn again because of the scandal. I guess I should go back before the girls trick Lindy into bringing them down here."

"You probably should. Your children scare me."

"They love their aunt Daria. If I don't say it enough you are a good sister." She said as she got up from the couch.

"You're a good sister too. Just don't hug me." Daria said as they walked out the door

"You would make a great mom." Quinn said half joking. She wanted little children to spoil again. Thank god, she and Jonathan decided not to have children for a while. That makes getting a divorce simpler.

"Not a chance. I enjoy being an aunt. The fact that you got your children housebroken is an added bonus."

"That's a horrible thing to say about your nieces."

"They'll get over it." She said with a laugh and a smile. It was good to smile again.

During the first few months after the divorce, Quinn got used to seeing her ex husband on every billboard in town. 2009 was a great year for him with his summer BlockBuster film and his hit TV show. Quinn personally hoped he died in a horrible stunt gone wrong or from some untreatable STI that he caught from whoever he was sleeping around with.

Quinn had two things to help her through that time in her life, family and her writing. Daria was living in L.A. at the time because Nikki was shooting another film and Daria was working on the film adaptation of one of her plays. Quinn also talked Daria into doing the film adaptation of Tutor for the Heart. Okay, so maybe Daria only agreed to do it if Quinn would stop asking her about when she was going to have children.

The girls also helped a lot. It's impossible to mope around all day when you are raising two teenage girls that drive you absolutely crazy. Quinn believes this is revenge for all the things she put Jake and Helen through in high school.

Chloe and Bianca were fighting like crazy. For example, Quinn was called in to the principal's office twice because Chloe was telling everybody at school that Bianca was her adopted cousin. Daria laugh for hours when Quinn told her about that one. Quinn personally wondered how Chloe thought she could pull it off. They look exactly alike except Bianca's closet consists mostly of gray, black and silver clothing.

During the first few months after the divorce, Quinn did a lot of writing. She actually worked on two books at the same time. One was about a recently divorced twenty something learning to live again after being screwed over by someone who she thought loved her. The other story was about a lawyer who fell in love with his client who was wrongfully convicted of murdering her husband that cheated on her with someone young enough to be his daughter. That story was so dark, even Daria was worried. Lindy and Jane refer to this as Quinn's art therapy.

Jane did all the cover work for Quinn's books. She was even trying to talk Quinn into doing a graphic novel with her.

During this time, Quinn did most of her writing at her new Starbucks. Because Quinn was still a social person she hated being stuck in her home office all day working on her novels by herself. Instead, she would take her laptop down the street and work on her stories. She would chat up the regulars and the staff, as she consumed copious amounts of various coffee drinks.

By January of 2010, she felt like she was getting back to normal again. Her heart didn't hurt as much and her characters were no longer murdering the people that broke their hearts. Things were going good in Quinn's world again. Then she got a phone call during one of her Starbucks writing sessions.

From the ring tone and wallpaper, she knew it was her mother. This worried her because her mom never called during the middle of the day. She was usually in court.

"Hi mom." Quinn said calmly into the phone.

"Hi sweetie." Quinn could tell something was wrong because her mom sounded like she was about to cry. This worried her.

"Is everything okay?"

"Quinn, it's your father."

"What's wrong with dad? It has to be bad because you're calling." After nine years of divorce her parents were actually friends. They got along a lot better now than when they were married to each other. Quinn wondered how that happened. She cannot even stand to be at the same film premiere as Jonathan. Then again, dad didn't screw someone else.

"You know every other Wednesday your dad and Eric play golf together. He has been complaining of heartburn for weeks but I didn't think anything of it. Now that I'm not there to keep him from doing it, almost everything he eats contains jalapenos."

Here's the other crazy thing, her dad actually can tolerate Eric, when Quinn and Daria wish he would die. Although, Quinn personally thinks it's just so he can play at the best golf course in Lawndale.

"Mom." Quinn said cutting off her mother's rant.

"Sorry. I have a tendency to get off subject when I'm worried. On the seventh hole, he just collapsed. They took him to Lawndale Medical Center." Why did it feel like her mom was keeping something from her?

"Is he okay?"

"I think you need to come as soon as possible."

"That is not an answer."

"I don't know." Her mom said almost crying. She knows from personal experience it is still possible to love someone after the divorce.

"Did you call Daria?" She asked calmly.

"Yes, she is currently trying to see if she can get a flight from Kyoto tonight. She said if you want, she can have her assistant book you a flight to Maryland." Daria was currently on Niki's Boys or Guys reunion tour in Japan. Quinn personally believes Daria talked her husband into doing it solely for the purpose of getting to spend a lot of time in other countries. If Daria was coming back, that meant things were really bad.

"I'll take care of it. I need to go pick up the girls from school first. Call me when you know something more."

"Of course, sweetie," was all Helen said.

Quinn ended the call, called her assistant to arrange for a flight, threw away her drink, got in her car and started crying.


	2. Part two: Welcome home Quinn Morgendorffer

Her plane touched down at Reagan National at 3:32 AM Eastern Standard time Thursday morning, with two hyperactive teenagers sleeping in her lap. Thanks to her personal assistant and her healthy bank account, she was on the first direct flight to the Washington Metro area. BWI would have been closer, but she couldn't get a flight arriving at that Airport before 8:00 AM. It was only an extra 40 minutes to drive to Lawndale, at this time of day, from Reagan. After grabbing their luggage, they made their way to the cell phone waiting area, where Lindy was already waiting. The first thing Quinn did was hug her best friend. Quinn was just happy she came. Quinn was too wired to drive and needed emotional support.

Chloe and Bianca stayed conscious just long enough to throw their luggage into the trunk and fall back asleep in the large SUV. She expects nothing else of her will travel children. After spending their childhood traveling around with Lindsey, those two can sleep anywhere, even if they were worried about their favorite Grandpa.

"How are you?" Lindy said passing Quinn a travel mug of coffee. Quinn needed the caffeine. The stuff on the airplane was horrible and she was too upset to eat. "Sorry, it's not the fancy stuff you usually drink. The Starbucks don't open in this neighborhood for at least another hour." Lindy said with a laugh.

"That's okay, I need the caffeine and I don't care if it came from my usual place." She said taking the drink. "It's better than that stuff on the plane and we were in first class. I'm anything but OK right now. I couldn't sleep on the plane. I actually wrote two chapters of the next book on the flight. I'm too worried. What if he doesn't make it?" Quinn said that last part on the edge of tears. She hasn't cried sense she was alone in her car hours ago before picking up the girls. She needed to be the strong one.

"At least you were productive. I probably couldn't sleep under the circumstances either. Your dad is too stubborn, to let another heart attack kill him. Dr. Mike called a couple of hours ago to give me an update. He would have called you, but you were still in flight."

"So what did your boyfriend say about my father?"

"First Mike is my ex boyfriend and not really. I decorated his new house in Lawndale and we went to dinner a few times. He owed me dinner for getting rid of the frat house chic decorum and the grandma furniture. I don't really consider that dating, except we had sex. Also, you went to high school with Michael Mckenzie. He probably would have tried contacting me anyway, without me calling him first. He told me he tried to call Daria in Japan, when your mother started threatening to sue the hospital."

"Typical mom response." Quinn mumbled under her breath.

Dr. Michael Mckenzie, better known as Mack back in high school, took the same crazy post high school road that Quinn did. During his first year at Vance, after the thanksgiving break up with Jodie, Michael decided that he did not want to be a business major anymore. The break up with Jodie was fairly amicable and they were still friends. However, it still made him reevaluate things. Six months later he decided that he would rather help keep people healthy then take their money through crazy investment schemes that won't work. He graduated from the pre-med program at Vance with honors four years later.

Due to still being the best of friends with Jodie, whose last name was now Landon-Sloane; Mack had a little help getting into the Bromwell Medical program. The only reason why Michael is doing his residency in Lawndale was to help take care of his sick grandmother.

His specialization was cardiology, mostly because his father died of a heart attack during Michael's first year of med school. Just thinking about his dad dying of a fatal heart attack makes Quinn panic just a little bit more. Michael's father died at 47 of the same thing that currently has her father in the critical cardiac care unit at LMC. When Quinn boarded the plane, her father had a 50/50 chance of surviving the night. Quinn was happy that Daria's old friend was part of her father's team.

This afternoon Quinn was desperately trying to get information on her father. Her mom was deliberately not telling her things because she thought Quinn couldn't handle it. Quinn was the one who found Lindsey's dead body on the side of the road when she didn't show back up to the house. She could handle anything after that. She also knew that her mom was hurting because she still loved Jake even though they were not married anymore. Sometimes Quinn wondered why they got divorced in the first place.

Although it pained her to do so, she called Eric. He was no help whatsoever. According to his assistant, he was pissed off because he actually had to go to court today to cover Helen's cases because she was, "wasting her time babysitting her ex husband". The call was not a total loss because, according to Brooke, things were not that happy between her mom and Eric. They were fighting all the time.

Yes, botched plastic surgery Brooke was Eric's assistant, that's why she was willing to tell Quinn all the best gossip about her mommy and her husband. Part of Quinn thought Eric only hired her because of the correction work done by Brooke's second plastic surgeon, despite the fact that Brooke was really smart, if a little image obsessed.

After picking up the girls from their private school, that even Quinn finds pretentious, she called Lindy to see if she would be willing to drive down to the hospital to find something out for her. Quinn didn't trust anyone else. Then Lindy mentioned that her former whatever worked in the cardiology department at LMC. 25 minutes later, as Quinn was quickly throwing a week's worth of clothes in a suitcase, she was absolutely shocked when it was Daria's high school friend that called her back.

He didn't sugarcoat anything for her. Her daddy had another heart attack on the green. It was a bad one. Apparently, playing golf in January is not exactly the smartest thing to do. It was a lot worse than the one 13 years ago. Things were made more complicated by the fact that a certain asshole stepfather decided to wait until Jake actually passed out to call 911. Apparently, her dad started having chest pains around the first hole. He was so weak he couldn't even carry his own golf clubs. Actually, it was not Eric that called it was Michael's boss who was in the party. Collapsing in front of Dr. Carol probably saved her father's life. At least, Quinn hoped it did.

"Okay so he's not really your boyfriend. What did he say about daddy?" Quinn asked finally.

"He's doing a lot better. He's stable and breathing on his own now. He's not conscious, yet, though. Michael begins at 11 AM today so he said he would stop by then."

"Did he say anything else?"

"He said to tell Daria thank you on behalf of the entire staff of LMC for having Jane come down from New York to calm her down. Apparently, your mother was still there terrorizing the staff, because she was so worried about your father. My parents were never liked that after the divorce. You remember that we had to sit my parents on separate sides of the stadium, when I graduated from Lawndale State. Jake and Helen are such good friends, sometimes I forget that they're actually not married anymore." Lindy wasn't the first person to say something like that.

"Sometimes, I think they forget too." Quinn said to herself, as she started to feel drowsy. Being with Lindy calmed Quinn down enough that she was finally able to fall asleep. Although, it may have been the news that her father was getting better that finally allowed Quinn to let herself rest.  
\--------  
Two hours later Quinn walked into the cardiac care waiting room carrying four cups of coffee, Orange juice, a couple of fruit cups, some bagels, and a few blueberry muffins. The girls were behind her, still half asleep, drinking no fat hot chocolates. Her mom was passed out on one of the couches, with her Blackberry still in her hand. Jane was still there, with sketch pad in hand, capturing the scene complete with drool and horrible hospital lighting.

"Thanks for coming." Quinn said as she passed a cup of the Starbucks bold pick of the day to Jane.

"Thank you for bringing coffee. I need the caffeine to stay conscious. I'm happy to be here, although not under the circumstances. Jake was more of a father to me than Vinson ever was. At least, your father showed up to both of my graduations and remembers my birthday." Jane said as she took a long drink of her coffee.

"I think that's only because Aunt Daria programmed the dates into his cell phone." Chloe said as she sat next to Jane on the couch and grabbed a bagel from the box that Quinn just put on the coffee table.

"My dad wouldn't even bother to do that." Jane said as she put her sketch pad down to grab a bagel. "Even in times of stress, you remember to bring food. This is why I like your family more."

"Your father sounds like our biological father AKA the sperm donor. The last time we saw the ass was at the MTV movie awards last year. I think his date use to go to our school." Chloe said coldly.

"For someone who dresses as stylish as you, you are quite skilled in the art of teenage angst and sarcasm." Jane said through a mouth filled with bagel.

"Just because I wear pink, doesn't mean I assume the world is perfect. I just like cute things." Chloe shot back.

"If the world was perfect, Chloe, you would be married to your teenage heartthrob idol Jordan Pieper, grandpa would be up yelling about the horrors of military school, Quinn would be our mother biologically, and Lindsey wouldn't be dead." Bianca said as she took the seat next to Helen. Bianca hasn't referred to Lindsey as her mother's since the adoption papers were signed nearly five years ago.

"Daria?" Helen said sleepily from the couch.

"Close, but not quite, grandma. I sound much more cheery. Stupid DNA."

"Bianca?" Helen said sleepily.

"Better." Bianca said just as she was enveloped in a grandma hug.

"I thought we agreed to hug only on holidays and special occasions." Bianca spoke as she tried to pull away.

"You're worse than Daria at that age. Your grandfather almost died yesterday. I can hug you if I want." Helen said in response as she kissed Bianca on the cheek, despite her physical protests.

"I know, he's the reason I'm here in Lawndale. Considering you're no longer married to grandpa, you're taking this hard. I'm surprised you are here. If Jonathan was in there, mom would be jumping for joy." Obviously, Bianca needed to develop tack.

"Fortunately for us, Jake is no Jonathan Star. I never liked that young man." Helen said as she hugged Quinn. This is a new record. She has been in the room with her mom for less than five minutes and she was already bringing up the Jonathan thing.

"I don't like Eric, so we're even." Quinn said with a touch of bitterness, as she pulled away. "Can you not bring up my colossal mistake of marrying Jonathan? I know I was an idiot. We have more important things to worry about like daddy. Is he doing better?" Quinn seriously doubted her mom would continue on the Jonathan subject, if she tried to focus the conversation on her father.

"Supposedly, but I really don't know because the doctor keeps sending his lackeys out. That nice Michael that your sister went to school with was extremely helpful and competent, but he is gone until 11 am. They have not let us into see Jake yet." The irritation and worry could be heard in her mother's voice.

"That may have something to do with the fact she mentioned the term medical malpractice 27 times the last time Dr. Carol spoke with her." Jane mumbled under her breath from the couch. Bianca let out an inappropriate laugh but stopped when Quinn gave her the 'mom stare of death'. That was the first skill Quinn acquired when she became a mom.

"I just don't like that doctor. I didn't like him the first time he treated your father. Maybe if he did his job 13 years ago, your father wouldn't be back for a second time." Helen said angrily. When Quinn's mother was angry that usually meant she was worried. It was obvious she was very worried.

"I'm personally thinking it was his love for the double bacon Cluster Buster with hot pepper mayonnaise and pepper jack cheese that led to this. Trend's old band mate Jesse is one of the managers at the new Cluster Burger by Jake's condo. He's in there all the time and usually gets in a fight once a week with the poor teenager behind the counter because he won't put extra jalapenos on Jake's sandwich." In any other instants this probably would've been funny. Instead, this led to more death glares when certain teenage daughters of hers started to giggle.

"I'm sure yelling at the guy at Cluster burger didn't help either." Bianca mumbled under her breath.

"Are you sure having to spend quality time with Eric, was not a contributing factor?" Chloe added.

"Girls, that's enough." Both Quinn and her mother said simultaneously, just as Lindy walked in.

"Why is it difficult to find parking at a hospital before 7:00 AM?" Lindy said diffusing the tension.

"Because the doctors haven't left for their morning golf games yet. It's good exercise. There's a reason why Lawndale has golf courses open in January." Bianca said from one of the couches.

"Good one. The sarcasm force is strong with you young one." Jane said with a smile.

"Please don't encourage her." Chloe said with a sigh.

"Okay, I think you guys need more sleep. So do you mom. That's probably why you are so tense." Quinn said as she took the coffee out of her hands and gave her an orange juice instead.

"I don't need sleep." This would've been more effective if her mother did not yawn at that moment or tried to grab the coffee back.

"I don't want the girls to spend the entire day at the hospital. Maybe you could get the girls settled in at the hotel. We're staying at the…" That's when Quinn realized she forgot to have her assistant Rachel get hotel rooms. Quinn always forgets to do stuff like that when she is stressed.

"You're staying at the Le Grand Hotel in the Presidential Suite". Jane said from behind her. "Unfortunately, this time there's no helpful computer geek named Bobby to adjust the charges later. You have three books in the top 20 and a movie in development, so I'm sure you can afford it." She was positive Daria chose the hotel solely for her own personal torment. She would get even. The mommy jokes were back on.

"I probably could do it." Bianca commented offhandedly. The truth is Bianca probably could hack into the Computer System at the hotel without even breaking a sweat. Last semester, Quinn had to 'donate' $10,000 to the school scholarship fund for them to forget about a certain indiscretion involving Bianca giving the entire sophomore class perfect P-STAT scores. Quinn only went along with the school's extortion attempt because there were several students that could benefit from the scholarships and it was more altruistic than Ms. Li bleeding everyone dry for bulletproof skylights. As punishment, Bianca spent the summer proofreading Quinn's stories with the 'good parts' missing.

"Jane, don't give her any ideas." Quinn said with a sigh.

"You don't have to stay at a hotel, Quinn. You can stay at my house. I have plenty of room." Quinn knew this. Her mom lived in a gigantic eight bedroom house at Lawndale Hills, built during the height of the housing boom of few years ago. Her mom actually had Lindy designed two rooms in her new house for Quinn and her daughters to use when they were in town. The thought of having to be in close proximity to Eric, made Quinn want to throw up. He was even slimier now that he was actually married to her mother. Also after her conversation with Brooke yesterday, Quinn did not want to expose her children to the arguing. They were already scarred enough after they saw her making a bonfire out of Jonathan's things on the beach, when she found out about him doing the trashy no talent celebrity wannabe.

"Grandma the hotel is fine. We will be ok there. We spent half of our childhood in hotels. We're used to it. A massage might be nice. Grandma you probably could use one. You're so stressed, it's not good for your skin. Mom is it OK if we booked some quality Spa time with grandma?" Chloe asked quickly probably because she hates Eric as much as everyone else in the family does. Quinn acquiesced to the spa time because it kept her out of quality time with Eric. She was too worried about her father to deal with Eric for long periods of time right now.

"Grandma its fine. Aunt Daria taught us not to speak to bellhops named Bobby who claim their uncle owns the hotel." Is it wrong to hate her own sister for telling her children about how absolutely shallow and stupid she was in high school? Thinking back to the person she was Quinn had the sudden urge to hide under the furniture. Thankfully, Chloe is nowhere near as bad as she was at 15. She was still aware that she wasn't the only person in the universe.

XXX  
After scaring another doctor and finishing up all the food, Helen finely agreed to take the girls back to the hotel for the day. Jane and Lindy stayed with her at the hospital, as they waited for an update from the doctors. Maybe they would finally let her in to see her father. She was happy to have the emotional support of Jane and Lindy. She was too worried to eat more than a bite or two of bagel and a little fruit. She has consumed nothing but coffee in the last 24 hours.

Jane was trying to distract her by actually working on the graphic novel idea. It worked. She was so busy writing the outline out that she didn't even notice Michael was in the room until she saw him hugging Jane.

"You know if I wasn't warned earlier I would never believe you were…" Dr. McKenzie started to say.

"The same conceited nightmare you knew in high school." She could understand the shock. She was currently wearing her favorite lounge around the house jeans with holes in the side, black boots, and a gray sweater from two seasons ago. Granted everything was designer labels, but she did not exactly look like her high school self. Completing the look was hair in a messy ponytail and no makeup. Things like appearance really didn't matter to her that day.

"I wasn't going to say that." He said with a smile.

"But you were thinking it." Jane said with a little laugh.

"It's okay. Everyone who knew me back then says the same thing. I take it as a compliment, most days. Thanks for keeping me updated on daddy. How's he doing? The nurses are still too afraid to come in here because of mom."

"Better. All his vital signs are good and he is getting stronger. We'll probably wake him up tomorrow. That's when the fun will begin with all the tests. However, you can help us right now. I need to ask you a few questions." Michael said taking the seat next to her.

"Patient history?" Quinn asked with a sigh.

"Exactly, we tried to get some of the answers from your mom but she was uncooperative." He said with a wicked smirk.

"That's a nice way to put it. I believe her exact words were, 'What the hell does knowing how much alcohol he consumes on a daily basis keep Jake from dying?'" Jane said as she did a perfect imitation of Helen's voice.

"She only reacted like that because she doesn't know the answer any more. They've been divorced for almost 10 years." Quinn answered. From their conversation over bagels this morning, Quinn could tell her mom was blaming herself for what happened.

"I remembered Daria saying that, but I had my doubts considering the way she was acting. She was still listed as his medical contact." That didn't surprise her. Her mom was the closest. Quinn lived over 3000 miles away in California. Daria and her husband owned houses in New York, LA, Boston, London and a log cabin in an undisclosed location, that Daria refuses to tell her about. Half the time Daria was not even in the country.

"That's probably because daddy forgot to change it." Quinn mumbled.

\----  
15 minutes into the question and answer session, Quinn felt like the world's worst daughter. Lindy and Jane knew more answers, to the questions Michael asked her, than she did.

As a birthday present for his 60 birthday, she hired Lindy to remodel Jake's condo. Because of that, Lindy knew all about the fridge filled with hungry man dinners, leftover carnivore pizza, and not one single piece of fruit. Lindy also knew about Jake's habit of forgetting to take his blood pressure medicine.

Jane was the one who knew about the brand new cardiologist. The last time Jane was in town a couple weeks ago, Jake told her about switching cardiologists and being put on a new medicine, that he didn't want to take. Every time Jane was in town, she made it a point to stop by and see Jake. Usually they would go to lunch at the bar by the house, that Jake likes a little too much. Even though most likely Daria asked her to do it, Jane has spent more time with Jake recently then Quinn has. That thought made her want to cry.

Unlike her, Jane tries to see her family regularly. At least, once a month Jane takes the train down from New York to visit Trent, his wife, and her genius niece who was only a year younger than Quinn's own children. That was a long complicated story. Apparently, the song icebox woman was about a completely different Monique. (Quinn heard that song once years ago when one of her dates believed that going to the Zon would be fun and exotic. She never dated that person again.)

According to Jane, the year before Quinn and Daria moved to Lawndale, Mystic Spiral played a private show at U of M for a former classmate with no taste. Trent ended up hooking up with graduate student Monique West, who was an adult version of Jodie Landon compared to Lawndale Monique with her queen of the damn persona. She broke his heart because of a misunderstanding and he got her pregnant because of another misunderstanding. Not that Trent knew about it for about seven years.

About seven years ago, Monique West moved to Lawndale to take over as principle of Lawndale high after Ms. Li was forced to 'retire' due to a scandal so big it made the papers in California. Her former principal is currently serving 5 to 10 at a minimum security Federal facility somewhere in West Virginia on various charges including misappropriation of government funds.

By that point, Trent was forced to become a productive member of society, by writing advertising jingles and giving private guitar lessons, because he had temporary custody of Summer's children, due to circumstances that Quinn was never told about. Trent and Principle Monique met again at parent night at LHS and the rest of their crazy love story will probably be adapted for one of Quinn's novels, as soon as she can get more details. They've been married for three years, once Monique forced Trent to put a ring on it, supposedly.

After being presented with firsthand evidence that she was the world's worst daughter, Quinn broke down in front of everyone. She was thankful for the lack of makeup as she wiped away her tears in the bathroom. Jane and Lindy had the good sense not to follow her. Quinn was now standing alone in the cafeteria because she couldn't take going back to the waiting room.

"Do you still drink orange soda?" Michael asked from behind her.

"I didn't drink it then." Quinn said as she grabbed a diet Ultra Cola from the case. She already had enough coffee for the day and it was not even noon yet. "I would've been huge if I drank all that sugary stuff the Js gave me. I usually brought it home for daddy. I'm sure the sugar wasn't good for him. Another example of why I'm the world's worst daughter." Quinn said as she allowed another tear to fall.

"You're not the world's worst child. If you were, you would not have flown across the country to sit in a waiting room for updates. I seriously doubt that you would have had Lindy contact me for any information whatsoever about your father's condition. Trust me, I have dealt with patients who have family members that live in the same house and knew less answers to those questions than you did. You live all the way in L.A. It's understandable that you don't know what he eats for breakfast or if he has an exercise routine. It happens."

"That's the problem. The moment I graduated high school, I ran away to Los Angeles and never looked back. I rarely even come down for the holidays, because I can't stand Eric." Quinn couldn't even look at him as she spoke.

"So you left Jake to eat his Turkey dinner alone last November ?" Quinn detected a hint of sarcasm in his voice but she answered anyway.

"Of course not, the grandkids would not allow such a travesty. Daddy usually flew out to L.A. to spend time with us. It's one of the advantages of owning your own business with his own lackeys now. He also came out for three weeks during the worse of the divorce stuff." Quinn had a feeling that time was not conducive to a healthy heart. He kept mumbling about taking Jonathan out with a shotgun like the squirrels that hang out by his condo. He actually scared Chloe.

"His divorce?" Michael asked with puzzlement.

"My divorce. I'm surprise you don't know about it. It made all the tabloids." For the first month, Quinn could not leave the house without being followed by the press. It was worse than when Lindsey died.

"I was wondering why your husband wasn't with you, but I didn't want to say anything. You were still married when I was with Lindy last year. She was always bringing out the family photos of her favorite Nieces. I'm in the middle of my residency dealing with an elderly grandmother. I didn't have time to read Brittany Taylor's gossip blog." Michael said in response.

Former Lawndale cheerleader Brittany Taylor was now one of the top celebrity bloggers in LA. Quinn has no idea how that happened. Daria was surprised she could spell the word blog, then she realized it was a video blog. They occasionally saw each other at various Hollywood events that Quinn still attended.

"It wouldn't have helped. Brittany was the only one who didn't drag my name through the mud. She was actually very respectful. See there is the difference between you and me. You were actually here to help your grandmother and I was stuck being selfish in my mansion crying over my husband screwing his costar." Quinn said, as she grabbed a fruit and cheese tray from the case.

"See this is why I know you have changed. I don't think taking care of teenage daughters is being selfish. You had other responsibilities." She knew Michael was right, but she didn't want to listen.

"My dad is still in the critical care unit because nobody was around to tell him not to eat at Cluster Burger twice a day or to take his blood pressure medicine." Quinn said with a voice that was a mixture of tears and anger as she got in the check out line.

"That's the guilt talking. I understand. When my dad died, I blame myself. He was the only parent I had because my mom was never really there. I thought maybe if I went to State, I could've visiting more. Maybe if I stated a business major, he wouldn't have to worry about paying for med school. Eventually, I realized that it was just something out of my control. Second guessing myself served no purpose." How could he know what she was thinking?

"So does the guilt and self recrimination go away?" She asked him quickly.

"Not really. It just gets more tolerable. Then, I help people like your dad get better and it gets a little easier to deal with." Michael said with a smile as they finally stood in front of the cashier.

"Hey, Dr. Mack daddy." Quinn heard the cashier say, as he started to ring up her snack. Without his trademark football uniform or the goofy shirt he wore during his second senior year it took her a moment to recognize him.

"Kevin, I told you not to call me that. Do you want to be working the graveyard shift at that gas station again?" Michael said just as Quinn handed Kevin her credit card. Later on she would find out that Michael was the one who got Kevin the job in the LMC cafeteria. That's also the reason why he usually eats at one of the restaurants across the street.

"Sorry Dr. Mackenzie. Quinn is that you? What are you doing here?" Kevin asked.

"My dad is in the hospital." She said quickly as she grabbed her credit card and the receipt.

"That's too bad. I hope he doesn't die." She actually heard Michael sigh behind her at that. "Your dad was always cool for an old guy. He was like the only person who talked to me, when I was working at that gas station. He would always stop by for a super chili dog special with extra jalapenos." Oh great, even Kevin knew more about her father's eating habits than she did. Michael grabbed her hand again before she could start crying in the middle of the checkout.

"Quinn, do you want to go out sometime? You're still a babe, even if you don't wear makeup anymore. Are you one of those hairy armpit chicks now?" Quinn could not decide if she was flattered or insulted. Fortunately, Quinn didn't have to answer because the person behind her started yelling for Kevin to stop hitting on girls in the checkout line again. According to Michael, this happened a lot.

"Thank you. I had no idea how to answer him. I think I'm too sleep deprived to come up with a good excuse." Quinn said as she fell into one of the couches by the windows in the cafeteria.

"No trouble. Honestly, he does that with everyone. I'm just happy no one remembers that I recommended him for the cafeteria job." He said with a laugh.

"My dad is going to need someone here in Lawndale to take care of him, right?" That fact was starting to become painfully obvious to Quinn.

"It's really too early to talk about post heart attack care." Michael said sitting next to her.

"I'm just a writer and I know that the major contributing factor to this heart attack was my dad didn't take care of himself. He's never been good at it. In high school, he almost caught the house on fire trying to warm milk."

"Ok, maybe you have a point. Once we know more, we can talk about care options. Let's wait until your father is completely out of the woods and your sister gets here from Japan before we talk more about it."

"Okay." Quinn said even though she didn't want to drop the subject.

"Now let's talk about you taking care of yourself. According to your friends, you've had 20 cups of coffee and about an hour and a half of sleep since 5:00 AM yesterday. You need rest and to eat something other than a few pieces of fruit and cheese." He said pointing to the snack that she barely touch. "Go back to the hotel and get some sleep. I'll call you if there's any change. You're only a 5 minute walk away." Okay, so maybe that was the real reason why Daria chose that specific hotel. She is still going down later.

"I rather be here. I can rest on the couch." Michael gave her that 'I know you're lying to me' look.

"Lindy said you would say that. She said that she and Jane have pictures of your room during the height of your Boys or Guys phase. If you don't comply with my orders, these pictures will be emailed to Nikki and your daughters." Quinn has seen these pictures from right before they moved to Lawndale. Those images were beyond humiliating.

"They are too evil." Quinn mumbled under her breath.

"I can understand why you don't want your children to see that, but who is Nikki?" Quinn forgot that most people know Daria's husband by the first name Nicholas.

"Nikki is Daria's husband and a recovering boy band member, who is currently relapsing in Japan. He was known as the cute one in Boys or Guys. You probably know him as Dr. Nicholas Bryan. Daria's husband sense of humor is just as wicked as hers and will most likely show the entire group during their Asian reunion tour. They would do something that evil." Quinn mumbled under her breath.

"Their intentions are good. You need sleep. Your sister is married to a boy band member?"

"You really don't check out Britney's blog?" How could he miss that?

"Not really."

"Fine, I will go to the hotel and get some sleep. I will be back at six."

"Good," Michael said getting up from the couch.  
\----

Actually, she slept to eight because certain sneaky children of hers deactivated her alarm and she got to the hospital at 8:30. Dr. Carol gave her an update on her father's condition and finally allowed her to see him for a few minutes. She was happy that Lindy and her mother decided to take the girls out for pizza. She did not want the girls or her mom to see this. Her father looked so weak lying in bed hooked up to various machines. She just held his hand for a few moments before she was forced to leave.

She and Jane were going over story ideas so she wouldn't burst in to tears again, when the girls and Helen showed back up to the hospital. She was forced to eat a chicken salad at some point during the brainstorming session. Quinn assumed that Daria was the reason Jane had so much black mail material.

Dr. Carol finally allowed her mother to go in and see Jake, a little before 10:00 PM. She left the room 5 minutes later, in tears. After hugging both granddaughters, she left for the night, saying she would be back in the morning.

Lindy offered to stay with the girls in the hotel but her teenage daughters had minds of their own and refused to let their mom wallow in herself pity. They are such great children, that never listen to their mother. She spent the rest of the evening playing cards with her daughters and Jane, as her children heard more horror stories about high school Quinn.

Around 1:00 AM, Bianca finally agreed to go back to the hotel but Chloe was too stubborn to leave. Jane returned 30 minutes later after taking Bianca to Lindy with espresso and some fruit for Quinn to munch on.

Around 3:00 AM, Quinn was busy working on her computer as Chloe slept in her lap. Jane was on the adjacent couch sleeping. 30 minutes later Quinn was asleep with laptops still in hand.

"I thought you were the only one who could sleep with a computer in your hand." Quinn heard a voice say through her sleepy mind. It took her a few moments to realize it was Daria.

"I have never fallen asleep working on my laptop. It was usually my guitar. My daughter, Madison has done it a few times. Mo is really good about keeping us from accidentally hurting ourselves when sleeping. Stupid narcolepsy." That voice had to belong to Jane's brother, Trent. He volunteered to pick up Daria from Dulles, so they could hang out. Daria was coming from that far away because that was the Airport that she could get a flight to the quickest.

"Daria is that you?" Quinn called out sleepily.

"Yes, it's me. Go back to Sleep." Daria said as she took the laptop out of Quinn's hands.

"Can't sleep, I need to talk to you about daddy. We have to take better care of him. He eats too much Cluster Burger." Quinn said to her sister half asleep. She could already feel Chloe taking up more of her lap now that she was no longer competing with the computer.

"We can talk about daddy's burger habit later." Daria said grabbing another blanket from one of the other chairs to cover her and Chloe.

"Hey, I'm going to go ahead and take Jane to my house to crash for the rest of the night or morning. I'll stop by tomorrow morning or maybe in the afternoon. Actually, let's just keep it loose. I'll bring Madison." Although, she was really sleepy, Quinn could see Trent hugging Daria as she started to chuckle.

"You really haven't changed that much. Thanks for coming to get me in the middle of the night. I don't think I am conscious enough to drive and I did not feel like dealing with a car service. You're much better at conversation anyway."

"Don't worry about it. Remember, it's easier to stay up all night, than to get up early anyway." Trent said letting go of Daria to get his sister.

"Don't you have to teach tomorrow, since you are supposedly a responsible adult now?" She heard a sleepy Jane ask, as she got up from the couch.

"Tomorrow is an in service day. I don't have to show up for those. Mo will tell me everything later."

"One of the advantages of sleeping with your boss," Daria said in her usual monotone.

"Good one, Daria." She heard Trent respond with a laugh/cough. That's the last thing Quinn remembers before falling asleep again.  
\-----------

Quinn woke up 2 hours later to the sounds of her mother and sister arguing in the middle of the waiting room. Fortunately, Chloe who learn to sleep through her biological mothers partying could sleep during just about anything. They were fighting over the fact that Daria should go back to the hotel to get some sleep after mom offered to stay with dad this morning but she refused. Then Daria said something about mom needing to return to court and telling her that there was no point in her babysitting her ex husband. This resulted in more screaming.

Quinn carefully got up from the couch, after replacing her lap with a pillow as not to wake up Chloe, before running to the bathroom. By the time Quinn returned, they were acting like nothing was wrong, as they munched on some breakfast sandwiches that mom brought.

"Have the doctors been by yet?" Quinn asked taking the seat next to Daria.

"Dr. Carol is going to be in surgery until 12. Mike won't be on until 9:00 AM but he left a message with one of the nurses to let me see dad whenever I got here. Apparently rushing back from Japan, is a good excuse to extend the visiting hours." The fact that Daria was shaking when she said this, told Quinn that her sister had almost the exact same reaction that she did earlier.

"You did not have to come, but I'm glad you're here." Quinn said as she hugged her sister. She was personally shocked that Daria did not pull away.

"Yes, I did. Nikki wanted to come with me but I think that was only so he could get out of spending quality time with his band mates. Being in close quarters, reminded him exactly why the group broke up the first time around."

"I'm still glad you're here." Quinn said ending the hug.

"So am I, but I think you should get some rest. You've been in the air for the last day." Helen added.

"It's just like last time, except with no Grandma Ruth to criticize everything." Daria said sardonically.

"Is it wrong, to be happy that Grandma Ruth died two years ago?" Quinn said in a whisper that only Daria could hear. Grandma Ruth was not very happy with Quinn's decision to become a single parent or make a living by writing with her grandmother referred to as 'housewife pornography'. Before her death, Daria became the good granddaughter.

"Not really. I was thinking the exact same thing but mom makes up for it." Daria whispered back.

\---  
As Chloe slept on, the three caught up on the last few weeks. Eventually, the conversation turned to everything Quinn learn yesterday and the need for someone to be there to help take care of Jake during the recovery period. All signs were pointing to the fact that Jake would recover. That made Quinn worry less.

Her mother actually suggested that Jake move in to her house for a few weeks, until he was 100% better. That led to more arguing.

"Mom do you really think spending time with Eric is conducive to heeling? Dad will be back in the cardiac care unit by the end of the week." This point mentioned by Daria, was enough to get Helen to resend her offer.

Quinn was personally glad this worked, because she didn't want to tell her mom what some of her dad's golf buddies told her yesterday, when they stopped by. Apparently, her father went unconscious about the time Eric started making certain jokes about Brookes' 'assets'. So much for their assumption that dad could tolerate Eric.

They finally agreed on three possible courses of action after Jane showed back up to referee. Option one, was moving daddy out to L.A. Jake will probably automatically say no to this because he would not want to leave his company behind. Daria doesn't believe that their father would even be willing to do it for a few months. In addition, there was the question of if he would be healthy enough to travel that far. That would also mean finding new doctors in Malibu that their father would actually listen to.

Option two, was hiring a Home Healthcare worker to stay with Jake. Quinn didn't like this option for several reasons. First, it felt like they were palming their father off on a complete stranger. Second, Quinn seriously doubted a stranger could convince her father to take his medication on time or actually eat something other than Cluster Burger or Five Chicks. Third, the moment her daddy started on one of his military school rants, the worker would quit. Daria estimated that the company would stop sending people within a week.

The final option was for either her or Daria to move back to Lawndale. Quinn automatically knew it would be her, if they took this option. Daria's job required her to be in some place like Los Angeles, New York, or London, except when she occasionally accompanied her husband on location. Than there was the fact that after the boy band nostalgia tour, Nikki was supposed to be a visiting professor at NYC University for a year as he worked on his next solo album.

Unlike her sister, Quinn could do her job anywhere. She actually completed drafts for three chapters in the last 48 hours along with an outline for the graphic novel.

Her only concern was the girls. She didn't want to take them away from their friends and make them start at a brand new school in the middle of January. It reminded her too much of being forced to leave her friends every time her parents decided to put their careers ahead of their children. However, maybe being away from Malibu and the Hollywood lifestyle would be healthy for the girls.

Also compared to Daria, Quinn knows how to be a caregiver. She was Lindsey's assistant for over five years. That involved vast amounts of reminding her to eat something and telling her not to take other people's pills. Taking care of her father shouldn't be that different.

After another argument broke out between Daria and Helen, they decided to table the discussion until Jake was feeling better. Actually, they kept arguing until Dr. Michael broke it up to let the three know that her father was conscious.

Spending time with her father caused the same reaction as last time. At least, this time she had Daria with her. He also had a minor freak out when they actually told him about the heart attack. Daria was right; it was exactly like last time, except without grandmother.

Over the next few days, Quinn and Daria started splitting their time between the hospital and the hotel. By that evening, she was kicked out of the waiting room after normal visiting hours and Quinn actually had to start sleeping at the hotel again. Lindy also went back to DC but promised to return in a few days.

Jake's friends started visiting by the third day but were not allowed in yet. This essentially consists of the regulars at the bar by his house, his golf buddies, the five other people that now work that Jake Morgendorffer consulting, and Mr. DeMartino.

Her former history teacher was still teaching at Lawndale high. Although he seemed a lot happier now that Ms. Li was gone and he was only teaching AP and Honors history.

Also by the third day, it was decided that Chloe and Bianca would be spending Saturday and Sunday at the Lane house. Apparently, Bianca tried to see if she could break into the computers at the hotel and there may have been an incident with a bellhop. Jane didn't tell her about this until the next day because of all the tests that Jake had that day. She and Daria spent the next day with Dr. Carol talking about things like pacemakers and bypass surgery, as Jake freaked out a little bit more in his bed.

When she returned to the hotel with her sister she was accosted by her two teenage daughters.

"Sign these." Bianca said as she handed her a clipboard with several sheets of paper attached.

"What am I signing?" Quinn asked in a daze. She was exhausted from earlier.

"Transfer papers. Actually, the first paper is a release form to get our records from our current school sent to Lawndale. Below that are the forms to enroll us at Lawndale high. We already filled out everything you just need to sign." Quinn was actually shocked.

"I told you, your children are scary and very pushy." Daria said as she went to sit on one of the couches.

"Why?" Quinn finally asked after a few moments.

"I know you thought I was asleep a couple of days ago when you, Grandma, and Daria were talking about what was best for Grandpa Jake. Did you really think I could sleep through all the yelling? Bianca and I talked to grandpa about it yesterday before we visited the Lanes. We decided that moving to Lawndale would be the best option." Chloe said with a smile.

"Even the promise of more golf time could not convince him to move to Malibu permanently. I really thought that would work. At least this way, I'll be getting away from the extremely pretentious people at my high school who want to become the star of the next Laguna Beach." Bianca said in an extremely sarcastic voice.

"They still have those people here. Ask your mom about Sandi Griffin. Also, I went to high school with Brittany Taylor." Daria said with a shiver.

"The gossip blogger?" Briana asked.

"Because grandpa won't come to us, we have to move here." Chloe said getting back on topic. "We got the transfer papers from Principle Mo today. You have a meeting tomorrow after you dropped us off at school to meet with a real estate agent. Lindy is coming up to help with the house shopping. It really is a buyer's market out here."

"I'm not getting a say in this?" In reality, she was actually happy. If this was the girls choice, she wouldn't feel guilty for forcing them to move away from their childhood home.

"We know you want to." Chloe told her.

"Just sign the papers, mom. I'm looking forward to having a brand new faculty to terrify. Also Mr. Lane's daughter is kind of cool."

"It's just weird to hear Trent refer to as a Mr. anything." Daria added.

"Bianca found her anti social soul mate. You can't deprive her of that. Everyone should have one friend." That got Chloe a pillow in the face from her sister.

"Fine, I will sign the papers." That's how Quinn found herself back in Lawndale. She really hoped her father appreciated this.


	3. Part Three: Life Readjusted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Quinn will purposely keep using the wrong last name for Joey and his husband throughout this story. Basically, now that she can remember their first names, she keeps forgetting the last name.

Quinn felt a sense of deja vu as she pulled her father's BMW into the circular driveway of Lawndale High. The wardrobe was different and the school was bigger, but it was still the same Lawndale High. The biggest difference was she was the responsible adult giving the pep talk to her two children that she uprooted from their nice quiet life in Malibu, even if it had been their choice. The joys of being on the other side.  
"I realize that starting a new school in the middle of January cannot be easy for either of you. Your grandfather and I really do appreciate this." She said sincerely. Her children made this choice a lot easier for Quinn.  
"It was our choice mom, we wanted to do this. Although, is it OK if we tell everybody that you are our older sister." Chloe said fixing her makeup in the backseat. Bianca was most likely reading a book on her phone, as she listened to the most obscure indie rock she could find. It was a typical Monday morning, except for the fact they were in Maryland, instead of California and she was the relative to be ashamed of.  
Back in the day, she probably would have done the same thing, if she had a parent who could pass as a sibling. She referred to Jake as her uncle all the time, especially when he went off the handle in front of certain dates.  
"Let me guess, it's still absolutely humiliating to have your parents drop you off at school." Quinn said snidely with a laugh.  
"Pretty much, why do you think I bummed a ride?" Trent's daughter, Madison Lane, said from the front seat. She looked like the antithesis of the principles daughter, with her dark grunge rock concert T shirt, tattered blue jeans, and a 2010 version of an Afro with magenta streaks. Looking at her, you would never think she had a 4.1 GPA and was student body president. She was the anti Jodie Landon.  
"I don't think you can hide the fact that your mom is the principle of this insane institution. You have the same last name and her nose." Bianca added to the conversation despite listening to her iPod.  
"Yes but my goal is for everybody to think I'm just the daughter of the really cool music teacher. It's not working. Everyone loves my dad, because he's the most laid back faculty member here but they are scared of my mom." Madison said with a laugh as she got out of the car.  
"I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that you look exactly like your mother, except you're a little lighter. Our Mother, Quinn, looks nothing like us. It's one of the great advantages of being adopted. Now, if only I didn't look like Chloe." Bianca said with a smile as she placed her iPhone in her pocket and grabbed her backpack to leave the car behind her new friend.  
"I hate you." Chloe said in anger to her sister.  
"I know you don't.” Quinn mumbled under her breath. Her two children fought like her and Daria in public but actually got along at other times.  
"It's not that we don't love you mom, it's just I don't feel like explaining, to a bunch of strangers, on the first day of school why my mom is less than 14 years older than me. I don't want to talk about adoption or my biological mother. Because we're using the last name Morgendorffer, nobody's going to know anything, unless they subscribe to the Brittany Taylor Report. Seriously, you went to high school with her?" Chloe asked trying to explain why she wanted to tell everybody at school that Quinn was her older sister. Even she will admit it seems more likely than her being their mother.  
"Yes, but she was a year ahead, so I really didn't know her. You need to ask your aunt for Brittany Taylor stories. I don't understand why you're so worried. We never had that problem at your school in Malibu."  
At least Quinn thought they never had that problem. Her children were good at hiding things from her. She usually didn't find out anything was wrong until her assistant told her or she was dragged into the principal's office. Considering she was a very hands on parent, it was obvious to her that they were actively trying to keep her in the dark for various reasons. Then again, she remembered exactly how much stuff she and Daria hid from Helen and Jake. Parenthood, was definitely karma coming back to bite her on the fashionable ass.  
"Everybody just assumed you were our trophy wife stepmother. It was very common there. You were not even the youngest 'mom' at our old school. Natalia's current stepmom is only 20." Bianca said mentioning Chloe's former best friend/archrival.  
Every school has a Sandi Griffin and Natalia was it. She was a cold-hearted bitch that tried to make herself feel better, by making other people feel horrible. As she looked out the window and saw a girl wearing a slightly too skimpy designer outfit, with 3 inch heels, holding court on the green, she instantly knew who was Lawndale High's new Sandi Griffin. Madison confirmed it.  
"That's common here. Do you see the queen bitch over their holding court with her subjects? That is Alexis ‘Lexis’ Richardson. Her 69-year-old father owns the only local television station and has been married more times than Larry King. Stepmom number whatever is probably at most three years older than your mother, Quinn, and has her own local morning talk show called Waking Up With Sandi Richardson. If you have ever seen that hideous excuse for television, you'll know that Mrs. Richardson only got that job because of her bedroom skills. I can't repeat the things my mom calls her when she comes down to defend her precious baby, when she doesn’t send her assistant to take care of the problem for her.” Madison said just as she pulled out her phone to check the time.   
“We've got to go. I promised my mother that I would give you guys the grand tour before you had to meet with the school psychologist prior to your indoctrination into the cult of Lawndale High." Quinn was laughing to herself at Madison's joke.  
"Is Dr. Manson still screening students with those crazy pictures?" Quinn asked as everyone else exited the car.  
"She was gone before mom took over for General Li. Allegedly, she left because she felt guilty for focusing on the students who did not fit General Li's ideal of the perfect student, when she missed the real problems plaguing students such as throwing up between classes. Supposedly, her departure involved some girl who died of bulimia or anorexia and Dr. Manson blaming herself for not catching it. It doesn't matter, because we now have Dr. Yummy." She should've known that Tiffany's death had far reaching consequences. After Tiffany died, Quinn stopped being a super dieter and just lived a healthy lifestyle.  
"It was anorexia. She was a friend of mine. Sandi Griffin was just as guilty as anyone else. We were all to blame. Dr. Yummy?" Quinn asked smirking at the name as she tried to change the subject.  
"That's not his real name. He is like a sex god, despite the glasses and the need for a makeover. It helps that he's only 31 and very unmarried." Madison said with a dreamy look in her eyes that told Quinn she had a crush on her guidance counselor.  
"This is coming from somebody who does most of her shopping at Hot Topic and has hair that only Lady Gaga could pull off." Chloe mumbled under her breath.  
"At least, I don't look like Barbie threw up on me." Madison shot back.  
"Girls, behave. I will probably be staying with grandpa this afternoon to give aunt Daria a break, so I will text message you with the name of your designated baby sitter later."  
"Find, whatever. Bye Quinn." Chloe said walking away from the car. 15 seconds later, Chloe was pronounced as cool and had a flock of students surrounding her much to the dismay of Lexis. The girl looked ready to kill. This was going to be ugly.  
"Bianca, please watch out for your sister." She essentially ordered her other child.  
"The fashion drones are already descending upon their new queen. She will be fine, but I'll make sure that she doesn't do anything illegal, like snort the blue pills. If she starts referring to me as her adopted cousin again, all bets are off." Bianca said before walking away with Madison.  
"Agreed," Quinn said, before moving to the visitors parking lot for her meeting with the principle, Dr. Monique Lane.  
________________________________________  
"Do you realize that your daughter has a crush on the school psychologist?" Quinn said as she sat in principle Lane's office filling out more forms and discussing curriculum. She is sure her daughters are going to be pissed that they are taking half of the same classes together. She thinks it's hilarious that they're both going to have Mr. DeMartino for honors history. They also had Mr. Sloane for AP English and Mr. Williams for gym class together.  
The meeting was taking longer than Quinn thought it would, then again, her two children had quite the reputation. At a few months from 16, they were technically juniors with a penchant for chaos. Lindsey may have acted like an idiot but she was a genius and passed that brilliance onto her kids.  
"73% of the girls at this school have a crush on the good doctor. Even some of the boys have a crush on him. There is a reason why he is referred to as Dr. Yummy. I prefer that to the students that refer to him as Dr. Fuckable. Because he so well liked a lot of the girls open up to him when normally they would keep things to themselves. He's hot in a very approachable way. I'm not worried because he is a complete professional." Dr. Lane reassured her.  
"I shouldn't be surprised." Quinn said thinking back to a few of her college professors that she had crushes on. "Though, there were no hot teachers here when I went to school." She said with a sigh.  
"The joys of the housing boom and lots of people losing their jobs after the scandal broke involving my predecessor. Most of the teaching staff at Lawndale is under 30. It could present some problems, but I won't tolerate inappropriate behavior from my staff. The only teachers who were probably here when you were a student are Mr. and Mrs. Barch-O'Neill, Ms. Defoe, and Mr. DeMartino." So they actually did get married, Quinn thought to herself. Actually, she was more shocked that they were still married 10 years later.  
"I'm sure that lots of girls have crushes on your husband, Mr. Sloane, Mr. Joey Williams and Mr. Jeffy Williams." Joey and Jeffy were both teachers at Lawndale high. Jeffy taught health and was the girls basketball coach. Joey was one of the gym teachers and became the football coach after Coach Gipson resigned ,once Dr. Lane discovered the grade fixing thing.  
"Not really. My husband is too oblivious to notice when a student has a crush on him. I like to think it is because he is completely in love with me. Mrs. Sloane is scary and once students get over the fact that gay men play sports, they figure out that Mr. and Mr. Williams are not brothers. Even though their completely professional, it's obvious that there in love with each other." The principal said with laughter.  
"I'm not surprised; they were obvious back when I thought both of them had a crush on me. I assume you want to talk to me because of all the stories you have heard about my girls at their old school." She personally hoped the principle did not know about the test score incident.  
"Nothing that the principle told me surprised me at all. Your girls are extremely intelligent and perfectly normal teenagers. Considering the circumstances, I congratulate you on your children being so well adjusted." It looks like Principle Lane knows the whole story.  
"So you know that their original last name was Snow?" Quinn questioned.  
"Your sister and my husband are best friends. Even if I wasn't a regular reader of the Brittany Taylor report, I would still know a lot of details. Honestly, I am more worried about how this move and almost losing their grandfather will affect your daughters." The principal said.  
"I'm worried about that too. It was their choice. They're forcing me to meet a real estate agent in 45 minutes." Quinn said looking at her watch.  
"I know. They asked me for the transfer forms directly. It was not an easy choice and they probably did it more for you, than anyone else. I just met the girls a few days ago and I know that they really do love you and would do anything for you."  
"I know." Quinn said quietly.  
"Since we're short on time, let me cut to the chase. I think it would be good for Chloe and Bianca to spend some time with Dr. Sorenson. That's the real reason why I wanted the two girls to meet with him this morning." Quinn's heart sped up for a moment, until she convinced herself that Dr. Sorenson wasn't her first serious crush from high school. There were a lot of people with that name in the Lawndale area and she remembered from their many conversations that David was never planning to come back to Lawndale. Then again, she was never planning to come back to Lawndale, so who knows.  
She realized Principle Lane does have a point. "Bianca hates therapy. After Lindsey died, I took her to some of the best child psychologist in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. Her last doctor ran out of the session in tears." That was awful.  
"Dr. Sorenson is one of the best child psychologists in the area and it's a small miracle he is willing to work with our school. I send his witch of an ex fiancé a muffin basket every year for being the reason why he moved back to Lawndale." Monique said smiling again.  
"Okay, they can spend time with the good doctor. Please tell me you got rid of that stupid psychological evaluation and the self-esteem classes?" Bianca would eat Mr. Barch-O'Neill alive.  
"That was the first thing I did, after I got edible cafeteria food. There's still some testing but only the type required by law. Before you leave, Trent wanted me to let you know that it's perfectly fine for the girls to stay over at our house in the afternoon while you stay with your father."  
"Thank you. I was a little worried about letting them loose in the hotel again." Quinn said in all seriousness.  
"Don't worry about it. As long as they stay away from Amanda's work station in the basement, they will be safe."  
\------------  
5 hours into her great real estate hunt and Quinn was this close to killing the representative from Happy Herb's Real Estate. Apparently, because she can afford multimillion-dollar homes, that is all this little girl has been showing her. She likes nice things but there is no way in hell she is living in the same development as her mother and her stepfather. Actually, there is no way in hell she is going to be living in any development anywhere near where her mother lives. So far, that is all she has been shown.  
"This house is great but is there anything less…" Quinn started not exactly knowing how to diplomatically ask to see something different.  
"Pretentious." Lindy finished for her, knowing exactly what she was thinking, even if she was afraid to say it.  
"I was thinking maybe something homier and less manufactured. It doesn't have to be something in a gated community." Quinn continued.  
"There are a couple of houses on Bryant Street that fit that description." Because she didn't recognized the name of the street, she almost said no because she assumed they were going to another new housing development created after she left town. However, she changed her mind at the last minute at her friends urging. Instead, she found herself on her old street. She should probably tell Daria that they renamed it after her. For the sake of having a normal life, Daria used the pen name Darlene Bryant for all her work.  
"Hey, Quinn I think that's your old house." Lindy said sipping her hot chocolate. After she almost yelled at the real estate agent, Lindy forced them to stop for some coffee therapy. Quinn was much calmer now that she had a cappuccino in her hand. A trip to Starbucks always made her happier.  
"That's the Carmichael house. It's been on the market ever since the couple divorced last year. It's a little low end." The real estate agent said snidely.  
Quinn remembered the name. They were the newlywed couple that bought the house from Jake and Helen after the divorce. They seemed so in love back then.  
"I did live in that house for four years. I don't think it's that low end. I don't want to buy it, but I think it would be fun to see what it looks like inside now."  
"You're the client." The agent mumbled under her breath.  
The outside of the house looked exactly the same, except for the extra room on the back of the house. Inside was completely different. Apparently, the current owners completely remodeled the inside of the house after buying. They also added a large home office and library complete with vintage books. According to the real estate agent Dawn, the book collection came with the house. Bianca would love that. Actually, the entire house came furnished, which would be a really good thing considering how little time she was going to have between making her deadline on the new book and taking care of Jake. Not that she was really thinking about buying her old house.  
Her old bedroom was converted into a nursery, that never got to be used. Apparently, that was part of the reason why the Carmichaels got divorced. The other part was Mr. Carmichael lost his six figure job during the financial meltdown. That might also be the reason why Daria's old bedroom was the only room in the entire house that was exactly the same.  
"Bianca would love this room. All we would need to do is add a new flat screen television and make a study nook. I'm surprised it's still like this. Why didn't your mom ever remodel?" Lindy asked her already coming up with additional decorating ideas.  
"Daria would never let her and she was too busy arguing with dad, after Daria left for college. I'm surprise the Carmichaels left the room like this."  
"This is the room they were getting to right before everything fell apart. They want 1.1 million but considering the economy and the need to sell, I'm sure they will take less." The real estate agent said to her.  
"So what do you think?" Quinn asked Lindy.  
"You already know the neighborhood and it is completely furnished. Also it may be good for your dad to be someplace familiar."  
________________________________________  
"You are having one hell of a quarter life crisis Morgendorffer. I can't believe you bought our old house." Daria said as they drove to Trent's house to pick up the girls.   
Their mother agreed to stay with Jake for a while she and Daria went to the lane house. It would also give Daria time to say goodbye to Jane, who was heading back to New York for a gallery show two days from now. Jane, who was now her friend too, promised to come down every other weekend to help her with Jake duty and to work on the graphic novel.  
"At least, I know the neighborhood and it is walking distance from the high school. In addition, it comes fully furnished. That way I will not have to ship out the furniture from Malibu or buy new things except for Chloe's room. She loves shopping, so much it's not going to be an issue. Also, how can I pass up the opportunity to let Bianca have her very own padded room? I'll get tons of cool mom points." Quinn said with a laugh.  
"Why couldn't mom see it that way? I knew deep down inside you were just as lazy as I am. You're also just as crazy." Her sister said laughing.  
"Did you know that they renamed the street after you? I have to buy a house there for that reason alone. I'm actually surprised the Carmichaels didn't try to get more money because it was your house." She said in all seriousness.  
"The economy is too bad for that. Unfortunately, yes. Apparently having a famous playwright from this sleepy little suburb is really important. My now former publicist arranged the entire fiasco to coincide with the opening of my second play. She was promptly fired for forcing me to go through that hell. Imagine what would happen if they knew that the world famous Melody Powers was also a daughter of Lawndale." Her sister said smirking.  
"See that's why I write as Melody Powers but live as Quinn."  
30 minutes later Quinn found herself eating a slice of normal pizza at the Lane house listening to first day of school war stories involving tales of crazy teachers and crazier students. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Apparently, even though he is now teaching AP and honors classes Mr. DeMartino still has the bulging eye problem.  
"I thought you were lying, when you said every school was populated by the young and the shallow. You're right, every school does have a Natalia and her name is Lexis. I'm almost positive Lexis's fashion drones would jump off the roof, if Junior Five said that was the new thing to do. These airheads are worst then the girls at the last school, if such a thing were possible. Thank god for Madison and honors class segregation; otherwise, I would be asking for a private tutor again." Bianca said devouring a slice of the carnivore delight. Apparently the fashion club was reestablished under the watchful eye of Lexis Richardson and her stepmother Sandi. Quinn actually spit out her cappuccino when she found out that Sandi Richardson was her high school frienemy Sandi Griffin. Quinn absolutely loved Madison for thinking Sandi was three years older than her.  
"Tatiana and Ashley are not that bad, they just need better leadership and maybe some tutoring. Lexis is an absolute bitch and thinks she can do whatever she wants because she's rich. Sorry." Chloe said looking at Monique who was also sitting at the table.  
"It's absolutely true, why apologize. In this family, we promote honest expression." Monique said as she grabbed another slice. "I cannot wait to see her reaction when she finds out your trust fund alone is worth more than her father's net worth. Just warn me to have extra security that day. You should hear what we say about her at faculty meetings. She is in my office too often. Tatiana and Ashley were really good friends with Madison until Lexis' said that they couldn't hang out with her anymore, if they want to be part of her fashion cult. Just remember, none of this will matter after high school." Monique said as she turned to her daughter.  
"Truer words have never been spoken." Quinn added.  
"Except you will have to deal with even more annoying people, in the adult world." Daria added.  
"That's because you married a pop star. Celebrity is just like high school but with more vultures." Jane added from the living room.  
"That's why I am happy Mystic Spiral never made it. We never wanted to be subjected to that sort of thing." Trent said as he kissed his wife on the cheek before grabbing a slice.  
"I thought you didn't make it because you guys had no talent and slept right through rehearsal." Jane said teasing her brother.  
"If you hate Lexis so much, why are you planning on spending your Saturday trying on close at Cashmans with the three fashion morons? You don't even like Cashmans." Bianca asked her sister.  
"Again, the other two are tolerable. It's not like they have any decent stores here, unless we want to drive to DC or Baltimore. Unlike you, I'm trying to make friends." Chloe chastised her sister.  
"I have friends. However, unlike you, I have real friends, not hangers on like Lindsay had. Have you considered hanging out with people that are at least as smart as you are? Maybe even people who can carry on a conversation about something other than what happened on our former step fathers show last night? I think you've lost 15 IQ points hanging out with the young and brainless today alone. This proves once and for all that stupidity is actually contagious." Bianca shot back, which led to Chloe smacking her on the arm. Bianca quickly hit her back. Eventually, Quinn had to physically separate her children with the help of her sister.  
"Did you ever think this was punishment for all the things you put mom and dad through as a teenager?" Daria asked her as she was holding Bianca back.  
"All the time," Quinn said with a sigh as she proceeded to calm down the girls.  
________________________________________  
The next week Quinn stayed busy with working on her two books, spending quality time with her father, cleaning out his condo and preparing to move to Lawndale permanently. The worst part was cleaning out the condo. She is 99% positive her father had food in his refrigerator that dated back to when she was in college. Daria identified a Cluster Burger wrapper from six years ago, hiding underneath the couch with part of a petrified Burger still inside. At that point, they broke down and called a cleaning service.  
She collapsed from exhaustion sometime around Friday, when her personal things from Malibu showed up at the new house. It's amazing how fast you can close escrow if you give them enough money. The Carmichael's were just happy to have a buyer. Her goal was to have her entire house together before her father came home and that seemed likely.  
Chloe was happy to have new clothes before spending the weekend with the Lawndale High cult of style. Bianca was happy to have her hard copy books and her desktop computer. Quinn was just happy to no longer be living in that hotel. During book tours, she spent so much time in hotels that she absolutely despised it.  
________________________________________  
What the hell was she thinking? She can't handle this. Daria already went back to Asia, a few days after Jake got out of the hospital. She promised to be back at the end of March with Nikki, after the tour was over, but March couldn't come soon enough.  
After living with her father for three weeks in their brand new home, she was ready to strangle him. He doesn't want to take his pills. He doesn't like his new doctor. He doesn't want to eat the salmon steak and steamed Brussels Sprouts. He doesn't want to exercise. Actually, he does not want to do anything on Dr. Mckenzie's list of things he's supposed to do.  
Her father is actually harder to live with than Lindsey was at her worse. Quinn didn't think such a thing was possible.  
All he does is watch TV and occasionally checks up on his business. She doesn't like the phone calls because he usually ends up shouting as soon as he ended the call. On a daily basis, she has to remind herself that she can't smack her father upside the head.  
He already tried to bribe Bianca twice to bring him his favorite artery clogging cuisine from Cluster Burger. Fortunately, she was paying Bianca twice as much to help her keep her father from doing stupid things. He also tried to bribe Madison but Quinn believes her Aunt Jane taught her to hold out for more money.  
It amazed her that, although her father will not listen to her, he will do anything the girls ask him to do. They have him wrapped around their fingers. The only way she can get her father to actually take his pills is to convince Chloe to ask him to do it. This gave her another reason to be frustrated.  
Then there is the fact that living with your parents again will drive anybody absolutely crazy. Sometimes, her father forgets that she will be 28 in April and is a mother. Sometimes, she is convinced that he still sees her as that little girl sitting in her car seat with her hair in pigtails. She can't stand being treated like a child, when she is supposed to be the responsible grown up.  
For example, this afternoon she watched in horror from the stairs as her father, who was starting to feel like his old self again, interrogated Joey when he picked her up for coffee. He finally backed off when Joey pulled out the wedding/commitment ceremony pictures. Quinn is personally happy Bianca was hanging out with Madison and Chloe was with the tolerable members of the fashion cult. Even better Jane was in New York this weekend.  
Other than Dr. Mckenzie, Joey and his husband were the only people in Lawndale that she was in contact with. Sometime during senior year Joey went from chasing her around like a lost puppy to becoming her friend. Although, this was probably around the same time she figured out he was in love with his best friend, even though he was still in denial mode. It was hard to miss when she noticed him looking at his redheaded friend more than her. They e-mailed each other a lot when she was dealing with her parents’ divorce and he was getting used to the idea that he wasn't 100% heterosexual. Even though she forgets his name half the time, they were good friends. For some reason she still gets names that sound alike confuse. Okay, so she occasionally calls him Mister Warren/Walls/White, but he’s cool with it. Her best friend is okay with accidentally being called Lindsey on the phone.  
Being a good friend, Joey thought her father's antics were humorous. Quinn was mortified.  
"It's not that funny." She yelled at her friend on the way to Starbucks, as he kept laughing. Quinn is pretty sure her children bribed their gym teacher to get her out of the house on this cold winter afternoon for an hour. It's not like she had time to do anything else.  
At least, they were able to get out of the house at all this weekend after dealing with 3 feet of snow. After living in Malibu for a decade, she wasn't used to copious amounts of snow. Then again, nobody in the area was used to this much snow.  
"It was hilarious. Do you think he is going to do that with your daughter's future significant others?" Joey asked her still laughing.  
"I hope not. Then again, that is probably not going to be a problem with my children. Bianca believes that dating is an arcane ritual that she refuses to participate in until she is surrounded by people actually worth getting to know. The only guy Chloe is spending time with is Evan Landon, despite Lexis's constant chastising for her to become a serial dater like the rest of the fashion club. It seems mostly platonic, except for the fact that they actually hug. Should I be worried about that? He is your quarterback."  
Evan was Jodie Landon-Sloane's younger brother, who now lived with her for reasons that Chloe knows but will not share. In addition to being the quarterback, he was also the student body vice president and the head of the yearbook committee.  
"He is as big of a threat as I was." Joey said with a smile that she didn't understand. "Trust me, your daughter's virtue is safe. He's nothing like Kevin Thompson."  
"That makes me feel better. Honestly, I don't want the girls dating until their emotionally mature enough to deal with real relationships." Quinn told her friend.  
"That makes sense. I don't think your father actually interrogated me like that, when I was actually trying to date you. He actually took my husband to the go kart track when he was supposedly your boyfriend." Joey said smiling.  
"Don't remind me of that entire fiasco. Never take dating advice from Daria. It never goes well."  
"I am married, so I don't think it will be necessary." Joey said twisting the ring on his finger.  
"Daddy has been a little bit overprotective since the divorce." Okay, that was like the understatement of the year. During his time recovering in the hospital, Jake snuck down to the cafeteria and punched Kevin out because he kept on hitting on her and Daria, despite the wedding ring her sister was sporting. She really doesn't want to know how her mom kept her father out of jail for that one.  
"That was beyond a little overprotective. If we didn't tell him I was gay and happily married, he was going to kill me." Joey said with a laugh.  
"I think it was more of the fact that you were a football coach. He loves football." Quinn said laughing along.  
"I think he was a little disappointed when he found out that we no longer have spring football due to budget cuts."  
"Why am I not surprised? I don't want to even think about what he'll do when I start bringing actual dates home again. If I start dating again." Quinn whispered that last part.  
"You haven't dated anybody since the divorce? You've been divorced for almost a year." He looked at her with shock.  
"I'm being cautious. I have a right to be because my husband, who I loved very much, cheated on me with a blonde Barbie wannabe. You remembered what I was like in high school? I did not even slow dance to the third date. I hated being touched. I didn't trust anybody back then, before I got my heart broken. Now, I have a legitimate reason to keep everyone at arm's length. This year, I spent Valentine's Day writing my own porn as I ate a box of good chocolate that I paid for." She may have also broken into her 'secret collection' but she was not telling him that. They were snowed in anyway, so she might as well enjoy herself.  
"Don't do that. You are still a fox, as my husband would say. That guy was an asshole. You shouldn't give up just because of one dick. I have a friend that would be perfect for you and no, it's not Jamie. He's really smart with a very dry sense of humor." Joey told her.  
Oh god, not another setup. All of her well meaning friends, her manager, and mother have been trying to get her to date again after the Jonathan fiasco.  
Actually, the week before her mom tried to introduce her to a very nice junior associate. Quinn personally believes her mom is playing matchmaker just so she can avoid the fact that her marriage is completely falling apart. According to Brooke, Helen found out about Eric's almost daily lunches at the Tequila Club. That place is known more for its well endowed waitresses than their cuisine. Her children are currently placing bets on when grandma and step grandpa will be heading for divorce court. Even her own daughters are trying to get her to meet Dr. Yummy for 'coffee' and she doesn't mean Starbucks.  
"Thank you for the offer, but I'm not doing a blind date. I'm not doing dates period. My mom already tried and I said no. My sister's best friend tried and I said no. Lindy tried to set me up with her ex boyfriend last week and I said no. I already told you about that." She said trying to stress her point.  
"I remember, but I thought you only said no because she was still in love with him and he was your father's doctor. You can't just give up because of one really bad relationship. It would be a crime against straight men everywhere."  
"Great, you're giving me a pep talk." She said with an aggravated side before continuing.  
"I like Michael as a friend and I'm pretty sure he still likes Lindy. For my own sanity, I'm not touching that. It's just too complicated."  
"Good call. However, I still think Dave would be perfect for you." Now she will say no just on principle alone. She refuses to date any guy with any variation of the name David or Jonathan. That way lays heartbreak.  
"I'm divorce with children. Most guys run away from that before they meet my live in father who is slightly crazy. It's just not a good time." She said as an excuse.  
"I think your father's cool, when he's not freaking out or telling boarding school war stories. My friend works with children and he faced his own heart break. He won't run away from Jake or you." He said in rebuttal.  
"Is he divorced?" She asked as they pulled into the parking lot.  
"Not quite, but what happened to him was a lot worse. He was left of the altar. He took a job at Lawndale High just so he could be closer to his fiancée. During the actual ceremony, she burst into tears and told him that she slept with the best man the night before the ceremony. The best man was his brother. They are now married and have a daughter together that was born seven months after the wedding fiasco." That was horrible. Maybe she could use it in a story. She would write it down as soon as they got into the restaurant.  
"Fuck. I thought it was bad having a daughter walk in on Jonathan screwing the toddler. You know he was cheating on me with someone barely older than my own children." She said in irritation as she got out of the car.  
"You're barely older than your own children. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Jeffy and I are thinking about becoming Foster parents, so we may be in the same boat."  
"So you're giving up on your surrogate mother idea?"  
"Not if you say yes. The three of us will have adorable redheaded babies together. Chloe did say something the other day about wanting to be a big sister." Why is she not surprised?  
"Same answer as before. I am not ruining this body for anything less than a Tiffany engagement ring. The way things are going, that's not going to happen anytime soon."  
"You should go out with my friend. Who knows he could be the one." Joey said being pushy as they walked into the coffee shop.  
"I'm almost 100% positive my children put you up to this. Even if I was open to dating again, I honestly don't have the time for a relationship. I'd barely have time for coffee between the book, my kids, and taking care of my father. Forget coffee, I barely have time to put on makeup." Just as she said that she received a text message from her father asking for a regular coffee and something from cluster burger. He also said he would kill Joey if he did anything wrong. She hoped this was not causing his blood pressure to go through the roof.  
"See this is why I can't have a life anymore." She said passing her phone to her friend.  
"It's okay. We'll stop at Rocket Burger on the way back to your house. Then maybe you can call my friend. Just take a deep breath and get your coffee." He said trying to calm her down.  
"That doesn't help if he's not supposed to have a hamburger. I want my life back." She said on the verge of screaming.  
"Unlike Cluster Burger, Rocket Berger has Turkey and soy burgers on the menu. I think you should just go out with my friend to help relieve some of that tension. You need some self indulgence and possibly sex. You're pushing yourself too hard. You're trying to be superwoman. This is a little too much for you. Have you considered maybe getting some help? You told me yourself that your sister is in coming back until almost April. Your friends can only help so much."  
"I'm not hiring an in home health care worker. I seriously doubt he or she will be more successful than me."  
"You had an assistant in Malibu, right?"  
"I still have an assistant in Malibu. She takes care of all of the business things I can't deal with now that I am exiled to Maryland." Quinn said snidely.  
"Maybe you should get someone here if you're planning on staying for a while." He did have a point. Although hiring a personal assistant meant that she was accepting that she would be here for the duration. However, she couldn't take this anymore. As soon as she got home that night she placed the ad.


	4. A funny thing happened at the Starbucks

Why did she think finding a new assistant would be easy. It wasn't. She had a migraine from reading the resumes before she even started the actual interview process. Most of the candidates Quinn would not be willing to leave her teenage daughters with for long periods of time. At least, one of the applicants reminded her of that creepy guy who kept hitting on Tiffany during the teacher strike in high school.

Others, she wouldn't leave around her children for the sake of the applicant and to prevent a lawsuit. Most people, didn't stand a chance with the two most creative and manipulative people Quinn has ever met. Others, were weeded out due to providing false information on their resume or trying to ask her out on a date during the actual interview. Quinn is pretty sure a certain friend of hers who will remain nameless changed the ad into a personal ad.

After being asked out three times by one particular applicant, Quinn pulled Jane and her father in for the rest of the interviews. Jane was down from New York that weekend, so that they could go through all the thousands of notes she received regarding the graphic novel. Unfortunately, the interviews were keeping that from happening.

Quinn now realizes asking for help was a bad idea. Although, Quinn did get a chuckle when Jane started asking applicants, if they were turned into a food product by mystical means, what food product would they be?

"It wasn't this hard last time to find a personal assistant." Quinn said, with a sigh as she sat down in her usual seat at her new Starbucks. This one was far enough away from the house that her father could not walk there but close enough that she could. Her daughter Bianca and Jane sat down beside her in the busy coffee shop.

"I think it has something to do with everybody coming to LA to break into show business but being forced to becoming a personal assistant to pay the bills. You get a bigger talent pool that way." Bianca said with a snicker.

"All the good assistants in this town already work for politicians in DC. Have you considered changing the job description? You could just get a cleaning service and there are companies that deliver precooked dinners to your house. One of Trent's old band-mates runs a service or rather is the delivery person. Monique does it all the time, because she doesn't trust my brother or Madison to work anything higher than the microwave and well you remember how clean my house was in high school." Quinn let out a little sigh remembering what happen that one weekend she stayed at Jane's house.

"For 20 bucks and your promise to keep certain relatives of ours from asking me if I have a boyfriend, or girlfriend for that matter, I will pick up your dry cleaning and clean after Grandpa Jake without complaining. That way you really just need someone to proofread the stories and do all the research that your new editor is forcing you to do on the new story to make it more 'authentic'. I would be willing to do your proofreading again, if you will let me read the sex scenes, before the book hits Books by the Ton. I really don't know why you try to keep it from me." Bianca said dryly drinking her coffee.

Her daughter did have a point, although, she still wasn't letting her read the unedited version early. Thanks to the ridiculous demands of her new editor who was completely clueless, she did actually need more help with the next book to meet her deadline. It would also be good to have somebody other than her father to bounce ideas off of. She was sure he almost had another heart attack, when he realized her stories contain sex scenes. That was not a pretty conversation.

"Girlfriend?" Jane asked raising an eyebrow as she took another drink of her coffee. Quinn was already sighing. She was pretty sure Bianca was referring either to Aunt Rita, Erin's new husband Robert, Bianca's biological maternal grandmother, or Eric as being the family member without tact.

"I was unfortunately adopted into a family that has issues and unfortunately stupidity seems endemic. I don't know why everyone thinks I am a lesbian, because I don't date any one. For me to be a lesbian, I am pretty sure I need a girlfriend. Then again everyone thought Lindsey was straight, because of all the guys she made out with on MTV, when in reality she was a closet case." Bianca said on the verge of an angry rant, that was dangerously close to becoming about her biological mother. Quinn had enough stressful things to deal with already.

"You have a multimillion dollar trust fund. You should hold out for more money." Jane said fortunately changing the subject to safer ground. Quinn mouthed a quick ‘thank you to her friend.

"I'm not rich, yet. I don't have full access to my trust fund until I turn 25. Currently, I get $300 a month that I refer to as my ‘pizza discretionary fund’. Quinn is trying to keep us from becoming a spoiled little rich bitch like Alexis." It was more like Quinn was trying to keep her kids from making the mistake she did. Her first month at Pepper Hill on a budget, was how she ended up Lindsay's assistant in the first place.

"I let you buy whatever you want within reason. I'm trying to teach you fiscal responsibility. I didn't understand that until my parents forced me to work after school after an unfortunate incident involving a credit card and the Mall of the Millennium. If you're willing to do things like pick up dry cleaning and dinner, that will be your after school job, until I can think of something better." Quinn said thinking of all sorts of jobs around the house to torture her child with.

"$16.00 an hour and you will increase my monthly allowance by 100." Bianca said negotiating her price.

"$13.00 an hour but I will let you include cleaning your room in your billable hours. If I increase your monthly allowance, I have to increase your sister's monthly allowance." She said, knowing that Bianca would not want that to happen.

"Deal, but you have to promise to keep the fashion club zombies away from me at all times." Bianca counter offered.

"Deal, but I will probably have to increase your sister's allowance for that reason alone."

"Maybe if you do, she can buy some friends that have a higher combined IQ then hers." Bianca shot back.

"Be nice to your sister. Not everyone can be as lucky as you and find their platonic soul mate before they turned 16. I'm surprise Madison didn't come with us." That caused Jane to start chuckling.

"I'm just appreciating the irony of the situation. Madison is being forced to attended a Lane family reunion, which I got out of by saying I had a work commitment. Since we were so busy on this wonderful Saturday trying to find your perfect assistant and didn't get to talk, what did the publishers say about the first few panels for the graphic novel? Do they like it or are we going to have to come up with something completely different?"

"You really don't want to know. I hate my publisher and the ass hole that they put in charge of the new book. I think he graduated from college last week. He is the boss' misfit child. They are worse now that I'm living on the other side of the country or maybe that has something to do with the new owners. I probably am going to have to hire someone just to proofread and do research to help with the hundreds of revisions that they want me to do to the new book. As for the graphic novel, they'd love your art work, they hate my story. Apparently, the idiots at my publishing house are convinced that comic books are still a male dominated market and they don't think a graphic romance novel will sell." Again, Quinn really doesn't want to talk about it. Just then, Quinn felt her daughter playing with her hair.

"What are you doing?" Quinn asked as she pushed her daughter away.

"Dr. Yummy just walked in. Do you have lip-gloss? Here use mine." Bianca said handing the tube to her. Quinn felt it was best to humor her daughter.

"Who is Dr. Yummy?" Jane asked.

"He is Dr. Madison's replacement at LHS. Your sister-in-law is his boss and I'm pretty sure your niece wants to sleep with him. Actually, I'm pretty sure Chloe wants to sleep with him because I really don't think she needs three sessions a week. My other daughter is currently trying to set me up with him, even though we haven't met yet."

"Yes, I know about Dr. Dave. I've heard many things about him from Madison. Don't worry about my niece or your daughter. Trent threatened to castrate him if he was less than professional with Madison or your Chloe." She started laughing at the imagery.

"Trust me. Chloe doesn't want to sleep with him or any other male for that matter. She actually does have issues. However, we would both be happy if he becomes our new step daddy. A live in psychologist would be a great addition to this family circus. Also, bonus points for any guy I can have a decent conversation with. You need to date someone who is your intellectual equal, unlike Jonathan, who makes Alexis look like a Rhodes Scholar." Bianca said as she pulled Quinn's blouse down to show more cleavage. "I really wish you would have worn the push up bra today." Bianca mumbled under her breath.

"I almost think you planned this." Quinn said with a sigh. She was tired of being fixed up. The entire reason they were at Starbucks now was she ran away from her mother, when she stopped by to set Quinn up with one of her junior associates again.

"I would never do such a thing mom, especially during major negotiations to increase my allowance." Bianca said with a smile that was too innocent.

"I should have never allowed you to live with your aunt Daria for two weeks, when I was doing that book tour in Australia right after the divorce. Who knows what she taught you. I probably should meet the man who is treating both my daughters anyway. At least, you haven't scared him away yet like all the other doctors." She acquiesced to her daughter's demand as Bianca waved Dr. Yummy over. If she was paying attention instead of taking another drink of her hot chocolate she would have noticed exactly who Dr. yummy was.

"Dr. Sorenson, I would like you to meet my mother Ms. Morgendorffer." Quinn extended her hand only to realize it was him, the first guy she ever really cared about. She should have known this was going to happen. It was her life after all.

She knew it was him instantly. The clothes were of a better quality but the same style, just more modern. David's glasses were nearly identical but it didn't matter because somehow he actually managed to get hotter with time. If not that, maybe her taste has improved after being completely screwed over by Jonathan. She was not a shallow 16 year old anymore.

"Quinn?" She will admit to herself if no one else that her inner teenager was slightly excited that he actually remembered her. If he remembered her then she was important to him.

"Hi David. It's been a while." She said keeping her voice even, in an effort to hide her inner teenager with a crush. Not that she still had a crush on him, but she completely understands why her daughter and her best friend referred to him as 'Dr. Yummy'.

"I had no idea that you were Bianca and Chloe's Mother, despite the grandpa Jake stories. You're a writer now?" The way he asked that question bothered her. It was like he was shocked she could do something that required intelligence. Most people who knew bouncy popular high school Quinn usually said the same thing in the exact same way. Apparently, everyone back then believed she was as smart as Brittany Taylor. That irritated Quinn now that she was okay with being intelligent.

"According to my agent, yes, but I'm not so sure. I currently have four books on the New York Times bestseller list and I am working on two new projects, in between dealing with my father and my children. You sound so surprised?" Quinn asked taking great pleasure in her accomplishments.

"I'm only surprise because high school you dreamt of being a fashion model and found reading boring. Your biggest goal in high school was getting into a party school. I never saw you becoming a New York Times bestseller." Okay, now he just pissed her off.

"I found reading history books boring. In college I found out that was because they cut out all the good parts. I manage to acquire a certain amount of depth since high school." She said, nearly quoting his exact words he used to reject her almost 12 years earlier. Just then her daughter’s mouth opened wide as she mumbled, "Oh my god, he is that David." Bianca instantly became quiet when Quinn gave her the mom glare of death.

"Junior and senior year, I worked my ass off so that I could go to Pepper Hill on partial scholarship. To pay for the rest of Pepper Hill, I worked as a glorified celebrity baby sitter for a boss who was demanding and slightly psychotic. This led to me writing my first book. Then I adopted two wonderful children, due to circumstances that you probably know about from therapy sessions. I wrote a couple of books, fell in love with a guy I wish I never met, who I married than subsequently divorced for cheating on me, than I wrote a few more books. I guess that's a great accomplishment from somebody who made Paris Hilton seem ambitious during her formative years. I think I need more hot chocolate." Quinn said as an excuse. Her cup was still full. She just wanted to get out of there. She was angry. Unfortunately, her graceful exit was destroyed by the adorable designer handbag she 'borrowed' from Chloe this morning. She tripped on the handle and fell into the person behind her. Making matters worse was she spilled her entire cup of chocolate on the individual. Her inner teenager was beyond mortified that her former crush saw her make a complete fool of herself. Then again, at the moment she thought he was a complete asshole.

"I'm so sorry." Quinn said grabbing the last napkin to help keep the chocolate from staining. This resulted in the woman's companion quickly leaving to get more. "I will pay for your dry cleaning."

"Oh my god, Quinn, is that you?" Quinn heard a voice squeal in her ear that she hasn't heard in almost eight years.

"Stacy," Quinn said right before she was enveloped in a hug. Just then she felt the telltale sign of a baby bump.

"You're pregnant?" The thought of Stacy from high school having a child seem almost surreal. Then again she had teenagers and Sandi had a stepdaughter.

"20 weeks. You look great. I haven't seen you since Tiffany died. I've tried to call you when Lindsey died but I couldn't get through. After that, all the numbers were disconnected." Stacy said babbling like she did in high school.

"We had to change all the numbers because the press kept calling nonstop. Even Lindsey dying, did not put an end to the circus." She could see David give Bianca a curious look when she referred to her biological mother by her first name.

"You look familiar." Stacy said looking at Bianca for a moment.

"Hi, I am Quinn's daughter, Bianca." Bianca said extending her hand.

"You have a teenage daughter." Stacy said looking puzzled for a moment before she got it, sort of. "You're a stepmom like Sandi. You must be Quinn's husband." A hot chocolate covered Stacy said as she walked over to David. Quinn covered her face with her hands. Jane had her phone out most likely recording this embarrassing reunion for posterity and possibly black mail.

"He is not my step dad, yet." Bianca mumbled that last part under her breath so low that Quinn hoped only she heard it. "He is my therapist. Quinn adopted me and my sister after the egg donor was killed by some stuck-up socialite who got a slap on the wrist for killing Lindsey and her bodyguard." By this point, Stacy had a curious but confused expression, Jane was laughing, Dave was looking for the exit, and Quinn wanted to crawl under a table and die. Did she mention Jane was also taping this? She knew this would be in Daria's inbox by morning.

"I'm supposed to meet a friend in 20 minutes at café Park. Quinn it was good to see you again. I'm sure it will happen again very soon. Bianca, please stop by my office before classes Monday at 7:00 AM." She knew the lunch thing was an excuse considering how fast Dave was out the door. She wished she could join him.

"Great, now I have early morning therapy."

"You deserve it for that little stunt. Stacy ignore her, she's like Daria but with lip gloss. You remember my sister's friend Jane. Don't scare the pregnant lady, Bianca. This is my old friend Stacy Rowe from high school." Quinn said formally introducing her daughter to Stacy. She seems so different in her light blue business suit and short hair.

"It's Rowe–Ruttheimer now. You remembered Charles from high school?" she asked, introducing her husband who just returned with more napkins. It really was Upchuck but with better clothes.

"Why didn't I go to the high school reunion? Great, I miss all the best stuff. How the hell did this happen?" Jane asked the question that Quinn was thinking.

"It's a long story." Stacy said as her cell phone started chirping. She grabbed her phone but her husband took it from her before she could read the message.

"The slave driver is angry." Charles said as he read the text.

"What did Sandi want?" Stacy said with a sigh.

"High school Sandi?" Quinn asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. She is worse now. After Stacy was kind enough to put in a good word for Sandi at the station, Sandi paid her back by sleeping with the boss to get ahead and demoting Stacy to the position of lackey."

"I am her research assistant." She was half tempted to mention that she was shocked Stacy was doing any type of job involving research but then she remembered how upset she was at David a few minutes earlier. Stacy wasn't stupid, she just pretended to be. Sandi was intimidated by anybody who was better than her, which explains why she apparently kept Stacy under her thumb now.

"You do all the work for the bitch." Charles said angrily.

"We can talk about this later Charles. What does she need me to do?" Stacy asked.

"It doesn't matter. You're not doing it. Let the bitch take care of her own child for once." Fortunately, Chloe called at that moment babbling about the idiotic thing Alexis just did at the mall. She had a good idea why Sandi just sent Stacy two more text messages that had Charles screaming. She quickly called Brooke to arrange legal representation, before she interrupted the arguing couple. Quinn was just glad David was gone because he would have a field day with this. He would find out about it Monday anyway.

"I think I know why Sandi keeps messaging you. Alexis, Chloe, and the rest of the fashion club were just arrested at the Fashion Connection for shoplifting." Quinn said with a touch of irritation.

"She is in so much trouble. Can I take pictures?" Bianca asked smiling.

"Not now Bianca. One more word and you have to spend the entire day with grandpa." Quinn sternly told her daughter.

"Ruin all my fun." Bianca mumbled under her breath.

"You know Chloe?" Stacy asked hesitantly.

"She is my other daughter and the reason why my colorist is now dealing with gray hair." Quinn said with a sigh.

She was going to kill her. She was taking after her biological mother. This seemed like something Lindsey would do. Actually, this was something Lindsey did a lot back in the day. Quinn kept it out of the papers because she secretly made deals with all the stores to pay for any of the missing merchandise.

"That explains why Sandi hates her and Alexis sees her as a rival." Charles told her.

"High school really never ends. Jane, could you please take Bianca home?" Quinn asked her and she quickly nodded yes.

"Why can't I go with you?" Bianca asked.

"Because if you want your allowance increase by $100 a month, you will do as I say and not ask any questions. Also, if grandma is still there don't say anything." Quinn said using her mom voice.

"Find." Bianca acquiesced.

"Do you want to ride together to the police station? Quinn asked, turning to Stacy. "You can tell me all about how you ended up working with Sandi again."

"I ponder the question myself sometimes." Charles mumbled under his breath.

"That works. Can we stop off at my house first, so I can change?" Stacy asked pointing to her hot chocolate covered suit.

"Sure." Quinn said walking back to get the bag that led to her earlier embarrassment and her reunion with her old high school friend.

To be continued


	5. The Secret Life of Stacy R.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world according to Stacy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thank you to GothicChevy who reviewed this chapter. Also, thank you to Teddy Bear for reviewing the previous chapters

Stacy never wanted to be a fashion model or an actress. That was who her biological mom or so-called high school best friend wanted to be and Stacy never wanted to be like either. Sandra left when Stacy was two years old to become famous only to die of a heroin overdose a few years later. Sandi only cared about herself.  
Stacy only said she wanted to become a supermodel because all her friends wanted to be that. Then again, most of her friends from high school didn't really know her at all. For example, all of her high school friends thought her stepmom, Lana, was her real mother. Stacy considered Lana to be her real mom so that was all that mattered. Therefore, she never corrected anyone's assumption.  
Stacy knew Sandi would leave her behind if she contradicted the fashion club leader or tried to think for herself. Tiffany would've most likely followed or at least that was what Stacy thought for most of high school even though she and Tiffany had known each other since preschool. It was easier just to pretend she was into being pretty and famous then being left behind. Abandonment sucked and she promised herself she would never allow herself to be abandoned by anyone again, even Sandi.  
It was not a complete act in high school. She really did want to marry a member of Boys or Guys, but that was only because Nikki was and still was an absolutely brilliant sex god. She hated Nikki's wife, playwright Darlene Bryant, simply because she was married to the object of Stacy's high school affections.  
Stacy had other dreams besides becoming Mrs. Nikki Bryant, like writing a cover story on Boys or Guys for Music Now. Stacy had wanted to become a reporter ever since she was little and would interview her Barbie dolls. She didn't want to be a Katie Couric or like Sandi's mom, before she had kids and become a producer. She hadn't wanted to be in front of a camera but rather behind a computer. Stacy had no real desire to become famous. She wanted to be an investigative journalist. Her idols became Woodworth and Bernstein, after she watched that one movie with the President's dog walkers, that came out when she was in high school. If those two could break a story like that, than she could easily become an investigative journalist. Later in college history, Stacy realized that film was satire but it didn't matter by then.  
The only reason why she agreed to be the fashion club secretary was she enjoyed capturing every detail of a situation in words. Okay, she really joined the fashion club freshman year because it gave her somewhere to be when her parents' marriage was completely falling apart. As long as she played by Sandi's rules, she wouldn't be abandoned again.  
Her friends may have read Waif to keep up with the latest styles, but Stacy actually read it for the articles. Every time the magazine would allow its readers to send in story ideas, she sent something in. They never used anything, but she still kept doing it. The only person she ever told about this secret habit of hers was her current husband.  
Stacy never told her friends of her journalist aspirations. She didn't want to be alone and she knew that was what would happen if she ever went against Sandi or the fashion club ideology. She was even afraid that Quinn would leave her behind eventually. It was a silly fear but it was still there. She wanted everyone to like her; therefore, she played dumb and became the stereotypical stupid fashion robot.  
Stacy hid her enthusiasm well when the fashion club decided to do the fashion newsletter. She was too afraid to even tell her friends how they could make it better. She knew it was going to be a disaster, but she didn't dare challenge Sandi's ideas.  
After standing up to Sandi, the summer before Senior year without being completely alienated by her other friends, Stacy became less afraid of letting people see the real her. Maybe that had something to do with her starting to get to know the one person who truly changed her life. After the end of the fashion club, once everyone else got tired of kissing Sandi's fashionable backside, Stacy actually joined the school paper, but she published under a pseudonym. She loved working on the paper but she could never tell her friends that she was the one who exposed the grade fixing scandal involving the entire Lawndale county school system.  
Her article led to the investigation that resulted in the firing of several teachers and her former high school principal spending time in prison, even if it took a few more years for anything to actually happen. Yet Quinn, Tiffany, and Sandy never knew. The only person who knew was Charles and the chief of the paper January.  
She wouldn't have even considered writing for the school paper if it wasn't for her secret friendship with Charles. Okay, it was more like Charles forcing her to join the school paper under duress and threats of social humiliation. Even though Stacy was able to stand up to Sandi by that point, her other friends knew nothing about her relationship with Charles back in high school.  
In the beginning, she hated Charles on site just because she was supposed to. In high school, Charles was the ultimate nerd with his polo shirts and khaki pants. Anyone with that shade of red hair, should not wear yellow. She did not even want to think about the horrible pickup lines he used back then. (His trademark feisty growl is now strictly reserved for 'private time'.) She honestly found Charles creepy, until she really got to know him. She only started to see him as an actual person instead of the school nerd and self-proclaimed sex god when she desperately wanted to know how he pulled off his various magic tricks.  
The only way he would reveal his secrets to her was if she would agree to be his assistant. Part of her was expecting him to demand sex or some similar favor. It wouldn't be the first time someone at LHS demanded something like that from her. Most of the boys expected her to put out after an expensive date at Chez Pierre. Despite the way Charles acted around her, he never expected that of her. Other than a few halfhearted come-ons, he didn't really try anything with her. This was actually refreshing.  
When she became Charles's assistant, she realized that Upchuck was nothing more than a mask that Charles used to hide his true self. Upchuck was about as real as Stacy the fashion club member. They actually had a lot in common. They were both really shy, although Charles hid it behind the Upchuck swagger. Both of their biological mothers ran away when they were little and they were both raised by stepmothers who they both proudly called mom. In both cases, they lost those mothers because their fathers were complete idiots. The woman that Charles called mom, left after she caught Charles Ruttheimer junior screwing his assistant on top of his desk when Charles III was seven. Lana left for a similar reason when Stacy was 15, not that the fashion club knew.  
She had so much fun learning the art of illusion from him. It was a nice change to be with a guy who saw her as more than just a beautiful face. Not only was Charles really nice to her the entire time, but he actually believed she could do something other than being Sandi's footstool. This actually helped build Stacy's self-confidence for once. After spending so much time together, they really became friends.  
After barely staying in the fashion club due to the intervention of Quinn following the magic show thing, Stacy decided to keep her new friendship with Charles a secret. The two mostly stuck to e-mails and phone calls because she was too afraid to be seen with him at school. Looking back now, she can't believe how mean she was to him. Despite that, she began to really trust him and let him in on all her secrets. He knew she really did hate talking about fashion. He knew about how much Sandi drove her crazy even though she didn't say anything. Eventually she would tell him all about the stupid things she did to be popular at LHS. She liked having someone she could share things with.  
Occasionally they would sneak off to Baltimore or DC just to hang out or see her mom in Georgetown. Contrary to his reputation, Charles never really tried to sleep with her even if he did flirt with her occasionally. It was fun having a friend with whom she could openly admit that she read the Washington Post and found museums interesting. She could be herself with Charles and that was a refreshing change.  
Being his friend finally gave Stacy the strength she needed to start standing up to Sandi. If she was a little hurt that she caught Charles removing Andrea's bra in the backseat of the 'Love Machine', when she ran to tell him about the demise of the fashion club, she didn't say anything. It didn't matter, because Andrea never called him again and Stacy would completely ignore the fact that she was happy about that. At 17, you tend to ignore the obvious signs that you are falling in love with the last person you ever expected to fall in love with.  
A few days later, during a day trip to DC, she tried to make him feel better by letting Charles know that the first guy she ever had sex with never called her again either. Okay, so she was an idiot for sleeping with Bret, but at the time he said he really liked her and she wanted him to be her boyfriend so her friends would like her more. That really didn't cheer Charles up; instead he spent the entire drive to D.C. coming up with creative ways to torture Bret. Of course, this was after Charles kissed her on the cheek and told her she was too good for anyone who just wanted her for a 'quick fuck'. If she didn't know that Upchuck, the-would-be Lothario, was just an act, she would point out how funny such a statement was coming from him. Instead, she added her own creative ways to destroy her ex-boyfriend.  
\---  
Four weeks later, when her date of the evening expected her to put out after their dinner at Governor's Park, she kicked him in his special place and ran out of his car as fast as she could. Of course being her, she left her purse behind in the idiot's car and ripped her brand new dress in the process of getting away from him.  
Because she did not have enough money for a cab home, Stacy was forced to call someone to come get her. There was no way in fashion hell she was calling Sandi. Even though the fashion club was a thing of the past by that point, Sandi went back to her dictatorial persona two days later. Sandi would just use it against her later in some way.  
She didn't bother to call Tiffany and Quinn because they were probably doing their own thing. Quinn had Lindy anyway by then. Stacy knew nothing about Quinn's family already falling apart until later.  
Stacy's parents were completely out of the question. Lana moved to DC after the divorce and her dad was at his girlfriend's house. At least he had the decency to call and tell her that a few hours earlier. That only left one person to call and he was on his way to pick her up without any questions. Although, maybe that had something to do with the fact that she was crying by the time she called him.  
"Do I need to take you to a hospital?" Charles asked the moment she stepped into his car outside the little gas station across from what would become the Lawndale Hills development a few years later. She had no idea why he asked her that question until she noticed her bruised wrist and torn dress. She knew her makeup was ruined as well because of her earlier crying session. A quick look in the mirror confirmed that she was an absolute mess.  
"I'm fine. Nothing happened." She reassured him as she grabbed a tissue from his glove box to wipe off her ruined makeup.  
"You call me collect after midnight to come get you. You were crying so hard I could barely understand the address that you were giving me. Your dress is in pieces and your beautiful skin is covered in bruises. There's blood on your legs. Why don't I believe you?" Charles said pointing to the blood running down her legs.  
"I'm okay. I just cut myself when I was getting out of the car and the door ripped my dress. Cory was just a little… He didn't do anything. I'm fine. I stopped him. Can you just drive me home? I just want to go home." Stacy said almost on the verge of tears again. She just wanted him to drive her anywhere else as quickly as possible.  
"What do you mean you stopped him?" Charles asked her almost angrily. That's when she broke down and told him everything. By the end of the story, she owed him a brand new shirt after crying in his lap for a good 15 minutes.  
"I may not be able to beat him up, but I can probably hack into his address book and send everybody he knows a notification about a certain deadly STD he has." Charles said stroking her hair in an effort to make her feel better. It worked. Making her feel better was his special skill.  
"Not everybody keeps their entire life on their computer. You're so weird sometimes." She pulled up to look at him. They were still in the parking lot of the closed gas station. It wasn't like he could actually drive with her crying hysterically in his lap.  
"Someday, everyone will do it like that. I'm not a nerd, I am just ahead of my time. I could make it so he couldn't even get into a clown college. I have the skills and a T1 line. I could do horrible things to his grades with just a click of a mouse." She was laughing at that point. Charles was really good at cheering her up.  
"I think I needed that." She said with half a smile as she wiped away her tears. "Can you just take me home now, please?" She asked him almost pleading.  
"No can do toots. There is no way I'm pulling up to your house after 1:00 AM with your beautiful self looking like an extra from a B film. Your father scares me and I'm not going to get beat up by an angry father for ruining their daughters virtue unless I get to do the actual ruining." Charles said switching into his Upchuck persona before becoming her friend again. "I can drop you off at Tiffany or Quinn's house. I don't think you should be alone right now anyway." Charles said being sweet and squeezing her hand.  
The thought of going to either place filled Stacy with dread. Tiffany would ask too many questions, if she wasn't busy throwing up in an effort to make herself a size -2. Quinn would do the same because Quinn was like that. .  
"Neither. My father isn't even home. He called me like 3 hours ago to tell me he would be spending the night with Amber or whatever her name is. I'll be fine." Stacy said reassuring him but he obviously didn't believe her.  
"My father is in London. You could spend the night with me. Not like that. I mean like a sleepover-slumber party. I'll sleep on the floor or in the guest room. I promise I won't try to get into your pants. I do have standards." He said stammering so much that she couldn't help but laugh again.  
"I know what you mean Charles. That would be nice." She said smiling as she drifted off to sleep and ended up being carried into his house. She may have actually woken up the moment he pulled into the driveway though she was having too much fun messing with him.  
"You're a guy?" She asked walking out of his private bathroom wearing his old Lawndale gym class T shirt 30 minutes later.  
"Last time I checked. Fortunately the parts don't fall off due to lack of use." He said trying to lighten the mood. He was actually putting a sleeping bag down at the foot of the bed.  
"Why are all men assholes?" She asked as she sat down on his bed. In the shower, as she examined her bruises and cuts, she had way too much time to think about all the idiots that she has dated over the last three years.  
"Because somewhere in the back of our minds we think all women are the centerfolds of Eyeful and Bachelor Confidential. When in reality you are all goddesses that are too good for us mere mortals to even kiss the feet of. You, Stacy Rowe, are a goddess among women and deserved to be treated as such." Charles said kissing her hand in a way that made her shiver.  
"Why do you include yourself in the asshole category?" She asked pulling her hand back. "You are not one of them. If you were, you would be looking at my legs a lot more right now." She said pulling her T-shirt down so the he wouldn't see her black lace underwear.  
"A true connoisseur of fine women would know how to appreciate the true beauty of a lovely creature like you without getting caught. Venus De Milo is nothing but a pile of rocks compared to your beauty. Besides, if I did you would just kick me in the family jewels and I would really like to have children someday. You are quite feisty." He said with his trademark growl, it was almost comical at that moment.  
"Can you please put Upchuck away for a while? I'd rather deal with Charles right now." She said sitting on his bed.  
"How do you know Upchuck is just an act?" he said joining her on the bed.  
"Because, if you were really the school sleaze ball, who tried to sleep with every girl in school, there wouldn't be a sleeping bag in front of the bed right now." She said pointing to the setup at the foot of the bed. "When I told you I would do anything to learn the secrets of your magic, you could've asked me to have sex with you. You didn't. That proved once and for all that Upchuck is not real." She said laying out her reasoning.  
"Maybe you're right. Although, I do enjoy women, which is why I would never force one to sleep with me against her will. I know that no means no and a slap to the face really means no." Charles said with a smile as he pulled her closer to him.  
"Then why do you pretend to be that person? You might get slapped less if people saw how great you really are." She asked him.  
"But no one would see me at all. If I didn't act like the Lawndale High equivalent to Austin Powers, I would just be another nerd in the crowd. Maybe, I was tired of being the unassuming son of Charles junior the world's greatest absentee father. Negative attention is better than no attention at all." Charles said as he ran his fingers through her hair again.  
"Why would you want everybody to hate you? I like this you. If you acted like this around me during freshman year, I may have said yes when you asked me out." She said half sleepily.  
"Would you say yes now?" His voice almost sounded hopeful as he began to massage her shoulders.  
"You're leaving for Blacksburg and the Virginia Institute of Technology in four weeks. Then there's…" Stacy paused as she adjusted herself to look directly at him.  
"Your friends." He said with a sigh.  
"I guess." Stacy told Charles with a shrug of her shoulders.  
"Why are you Stacy Rowe, fashion club member?" Charles asked her as he pulled her to look at him again.  
"I'm not. The fashion club doesn't even exist anymore." She said deliberately misunderstanding his question.  
"You're not that stupid, why do you pretend to be? Yes, you finally got tired of being Sandi's pet. Yet, a few days later things are back to normal and you became her yes woman once more. You don't even like shopping but you wear whatever she tells you to. You read Teen Style Monthly orwhatever the hell it's called for the articles. You even lost your virginity to a guy you really didn't like just so you wouldn't be a social pariah. You're too afraid to be yourself. Why is that?" Why did Charles have to point out the obvious? Although, she was not 100% sure what pariah meant but it probably wasn't a good thing from the way he said the word and the context.  
"So are you." Stacy replied lamely.  
"Maybe, but that's not an answer. I told you the truth, now you tell me. Why don't you want the world to see how beautiful you really are?"  
"Maybe I don't want to be abandoned again by the people who are supposed to love me because I'm not who they want me to be. I've already lost my mom, I don't want to lose my friends. Maybe, I rather fetch Sandi's diet soda then be alone." She said telling him the complete truth.  
"Lana did not abandon you. You see her all the time. We visited her just last week. If you called her tonight instead of me, she would have drove all the way from DC to come get you and you know it." He was probably right about her real mom.  
"I'm talking about my biological mother. Where do you keep your vintage porn collection?" Stacy asked getting up from the bed.  
"How do you know I have a vintage porn collection?" He asked her nearly shocked.  
"Because you collect everything and Brittany essentially told the whole school about your collection. It's part of what makes you Charles." Stacy said smiling.  
"Downstairs in the garage, but be careful." She was halfway to the garage before he caught up to her. She quickly pulled out the November 1984 issue of Eyeful.  
"That's my mom." Stacy said pointing to the picture of the naked centerfold. That was taken three or four months after she left me on my father's doorstep. She was only 19 at the time. They were never really together. He was already married to Lana by then."  
"She definitely doesn't look like a woman who already gave birth to a wonderful creature such as yourself." Charles said with a smile.  
"I thought we were going to lose the Upchuck comments for the rest of the night?" Stacy said as they walked back to his bedroom with the old magazine still in her hand.  
"You are beautiful, just like the woman in the magazine. I remember her. She died—I'm sorry." Due to his tendency to memorize everything, it did not surprise Stacy that he probably knew the entire tragic story of Miss November 1984.  
"It's okay. Sandra died a long time ago." Stacy said standing still in his living room for a moment, before she started walking up the stairs. "It doesn't bother me anymore."  
"But it's still affecting who you are. That explains why you let Sandi walk all over you. You are afraid of being left on the proverbial doorstep again. Let's make a deal. I will leave Upchuck to the hollow halls of Lawndale High if you will do something you really want to do for once." Charles said following behind her.  
"I'm not going to have sex with you tonight." She said quickly before realizing what she just accidentally admitted to. Okay, so she was very upset about the Andrea thing.  
"I'm not asking you to have sex with me. Wait, you want to sleep with me?" He asked her more in shock than anything else.  
"I don't—maybe–sort of— so what's the one thing I have to do?" She said finally hoping he would just let it drop. She was too emotionally exhausted to analyze what she just said.  
"I'm just going to let your Freudian slip slide in an effort to become my real self. You have to become the real Stacy." He said grabbing her hand.  
"How do I become the real Stacy?" She asked him.  
"You should write for the school paper." He suggested as they walked back into his bedroom.  
"Sandi would stop talking to me if I did something like that." Stacy said as she sat back down on his bed again. Charles sat next to her.  
"Would that really be such a bad thing? The only person Sandi cares about is Sandi. Quinn and Tiffany took your side last time. I know they would do it again. You think about that as I find out how comfortable the sleeping bag really is." Charles said just before he leaned in to kiss her on the cheek as usual. Instead, she moved just a little bit and he kissed her on the lips instead.  
"You can stay up here." She said not mentioning the fact that she just kissed him seconds earlier.  
"The sleeping bag is fine." He said not mentioning what happened.  
"Whenever we have a sleepover, no matter whose house it is at, Sandi always takes the bed. I'm trying not to be like her." Even that sounded like some weird excuse to Stacy.  
"You can never be like her." Charles said getting up from the bed but she pulled him back down.  
"Stay with me."  
"Okay." He said getting into bed next to her.  
\----   
After that, they never talked about the kiss or her waking up wrapped in his arms. They definitely didn't talk about how she kept making excuses to spend time with him that summer. They did talk about her joining the school paper a lot. It did not even stop when he actually moved to Blacksburg. If she spent the night in his bed under the pretense of a movie marathon on his last night in Lawndale neither of them said anything.  
Three weeks after he left for VIT, she finally gave up under the pressure and signed up for the school paper. It was easy for her to keep her secret because Sandi only cared about herself, Tiffany was completely lost in her own world, and Quinn was too busy dealing with her parents' disintegrating marriage, not that she knew about it at the time. They didn't even ask questions when she suddenly stopped dating.  
Okay that's not true, Quinn did ask questions but she quickly believed that Stacy was dating some guy at VIT. Then again, Quinn had her own troubles, so it was understandable why Quinn did not ask any questions when Stacy said she was visiting Blacksburg during spring break.  
It really didn't matter because when college began, the former members of the fashion club scattered across the country. Quinn ended up at Pepper Hill on scholarship much to Sandi's irritation and envy. Sandi barely got into the Script school of Journalism at Potomac University and that was probably because her mom knew somebody on the board. Tiffany moved to New York to actually become a model.  
Because Stacy didn't try at school until senior year, her GPA was horrible and she didn't exactly have a mother who could pull strings for her at a top journalism school. If it wasn't for her work on the school paper senior year and Charles tutoring her from Blacksburg for her second attempt at her college entrance exams, she probably would never have gotten in to the brand new web journalism program at Lawndale State. Not that she told anyone about it.  
Of her high school friends, Quinn was the only one who called her at all after the first few weeks without pretense. Tiffany only called or e-mailed to see if she looked fat in an outfit. Sandi only called to make her feel miserable or ask for a favor.  
It did not scare Stacy as much as it would have in high school because not only did she still e-mail Charles at least twice a day, she was quickly making new friends at Lawndale State who liked her for her and not as someone to carry their bags when they go shopping. She even met guys who were actually interested in her and not just making her a notch on their bed post.  
She even started an internship at the only TV station in town. Fortunately for her, Sandi's mom took a production position at a station in Baltimore after a falling out with the station manager. It wouldn't matter anyway because Stacy mostly generated content for the station's new web site. Stacy loved her job because it allowed her to live on her own sophomore year so she did not have to deal with her new stepmom who was only five years older than Stacy or spend time with her brand new baby sister, Alicia. By spending time with Alicia, she meant changing diapers.  
For the first two years, everything was great or at least Stacy thought it was. Stacy did not realize that she rarely returned Quinn's e-mails anymore because her job was taking all of her time or that Tiffany seemed to be getting just a little bit thinner every time she came to visit. She definitely did not notice that Tiffany didn't touch her food when they would go out for dinner, when Tiffany would take the train from New York to see her on rare occasions.  
Stacy didn't notice that Charles got a little upset every time she mentioned that she had a date with a guy who was not him. She did not register that she got just as upset when he mentioned hooking up with some random girl at VIT or mentioned interviewing for some job that would take him thousands of miles away from her. She didn't take notice of the fact that all her friends at Lawndale State assumed that Charles was her boyfriend. She didn't think about the fact that when he came to visit her that they always slept in the same bed or they ended up 'accidentally' kissing at least once every visit. She really didn't think about the fact that she went to Blacksburg once a month to see him, when she never took the train to see Tiffany in New York. Considering what happened, she really wished she would have.  
Everything came to a head one day in April of her sophomore year, with a single phone call. It was one of the few weekends that she would be staying in Lawndale alone. She had too many exams to travel down to Blacksburg that weekend and Charles was in a similar situation preparing for finals and graduation. Being the genius he was, Charles graduated an entire year early.  
Instead of spending time with Charles as she would have preferred, she was being forced to go to a frat party by her friend katalina, who was also known as Kat. She was putting on her makeup when Tiffany's father called. She had known something was wrong simply by the fact that he actually called her. He was so busy with his job, that Tiffany was practically raised by her nanny. Stacy dropped her phone when he told her that Tiffany's heart just gave out. Seconds later, she fell as well. Stacy knew her friend was obsessed with being perfect, but she had no idea it went that far.  
15 minutes later, Kat found her still sobbing on the floor hysterically, completely unable to explain what happened. Kat actually broke the door down to get inside because she could hear her crying. Kat assumed by her broken state, that she just had a fight with Charles and called him immediately.  
"What the fuck did you just do to your girlfriend?" Stacy heard Kat ask as she continued to cry on the floor.  
"Katalina what are you talking about? Stacy and I are just friends. Is something wrong with Stacy? Is that her crying in the background? Why is she crying?" Charles said on the other side of the line. Kat must have had her phone on speaker. Just hearing his voice made her calm down a little bit  
"Yes she is crying. Because you were busy this weekend, I was forcing your girlfriend to go partying with me tonight. When I arrived at her apartment, I found Stacy crying on the floor not able to answer me. If you cheated on her, I'm going to cut off your dick." Kat said in a way that made you take her threat seriously.  
"I haven't even been on a date with anyone else for a year. Wait, how can I cheat on someone when we're technically not dating? Look, let me talk to her." Charles said with urgency in his voice.  
"You are on speaker. She heard this entire conversation. The fact that she sobbing just a little bit less means that you are most likely not responsible for her hysterical behavior." Kat said as she sat on the ground next to Stacy and put an arm around her. "Charles is on the phone. Stacy what happened?" She asked gently.  
"Tiffany." It was all Stacy could get out before she started crying again.  
"Did you and Tiffany have a fight?" She heard Charles asked through the phone. Stacy nodded her head no.  
"She's nodding her head no." Kat told him.  
"But you're upset because of Tiffany? Did something happen to Tiffany?" Charles asked again and she started crying harder.  
"I believe that is Stacy for yes." Kat translated.  
"What happened to Tiffany?"  
"I didn't know-I didn't realize she was getting-I just thought it was like high school-her heart was too weak." Stacy babbled as she cried into Kat's shirt.  
"Is Tiffany in the hospital?" Kat asked her.  
"Too late. She's gone." Stacy completely broke down before she could say anything else. They got it. Kat held her as she continued to cry and she was almost positive she heard Charles say that he would be right there.  
Stacy didn't remember much of what happened over the next couple hours, although that may have something to do with the very spiked hot chocolate her other friend Ashley brought by. Ashley always had the best pills, not that Stacy really experimented in college intentionally. She really had no idea you could put pot in cheese crackers.  
The first thing she remembered was Charles walking into her apartment and kissing him. This wasn't their normal accidental kiss that they had been getting away with for the last three years. This was a full force, body against the wall, clothing starting to fall off kiss. She was so into the way his tongue felt against her she barely heard Ashley mumble, "Just friends, yeah right."  
"Please don't leave me." She mumbled against his lips.  
"It's okay. I'm here. I promise I won't leave you." She started crying again as he carried her to her bedroom. He kissed her lips once more before leaving her behind to ask Kat and Ashley how she was handling everything. Kat and Ashley left with the promise to call first thing in the morning. He came back into her room with a bottle of water that he forced her to drink.  
"You said you wouldn't leave me." She said taking a drink of the water.  
"I didn't. I was just in the living room talking to the evil duo." He said wrapping an arm around her as he sat next to her on the bed. She instantly fell into him as he began stroking her hair. "Are you okay?"  
"Why do people ask such stupid questions at times like this? How can I be okay?" She asked him with bloodshot eyes.  
"I don't know. I'm not sure how to start this conversation. It was either a dumb question or hitting on you. Becoming a charming Casanova is my natural defense mechanism." She knew he was trying to make her smile but she was too screwed up inside to do anything but start crying again. She literally felt him wiping away her tears.  
"I've known Tiffany since I was four and she asked me if her jumper made her look fat in preschool. That should have told me right then and there this is going to happen." Stacy said between sobs.  
"What happened?" He asked as he kept stroking her hair.  
"Did you know that Tiffany was anorexic?" She asked him only choking twice on the words.  
"Considering the fact that all I ever saw the four of you eat in high school was two pieces of lettuce and a Tic Tac, I had my suspicions." Charles said with a self-depreciating laugh.  
"That was Sandi. We had to be picture perfect and starving ourselves was part of that. She made the weight requirement so strenuous for our little fashion cult that she got herself kicked out when she broke her leg and gained 10 pounds. She changed the rules when she got skinny enough to join again but the damage had already been done. I got around it by eating at home and doing lots of yoga. I guess Tiffany didn't. She got down to 82 pounds. Her heart finally gave out this morning." Stacy started crying again but this time she was interrupted by Charles cupping her face.  
"You are already perfect. You are more beautiful then every single woman in my entire vintage porn collection. The only one that comes close is Miss November 1984 and that's only because she gave birth to the most beautiful creature I have ever met." He said kissing her once more.  
"You're trying to keep me from crying." She said looking at him with watery eyes.  
"Is it working?" He asked kissing her cheek.  
"No. How can someone I've known almost my entire life be dead? Even before we met Sandi in junior high, we were so close. Why did this happen?"  
"I don't know." He said with light touches and a gentle voice.  
"How did I not see this coming? Was I a bad friend?" She asked him.  
"You were not a bad friend. You are the best friend I have ever had. You had your own life here in Lawndale and she was in New York." He said as an excuse but Stacy didn't buy it. She should've done more.  
"You live nearly 5 hours away and I bet I know what you had for breakfast this morning." She spat out with a bitter laugh.  
"It's different between you and me. I want you to know those things. You could only see what Tiffany wanted you to see. If Tiffany didn't want you to see a problem, you weren't going to see it. She wanted you to think everything was wonderful and that's what you saw. I know you are a really good friend. You're the best friend I've ever had." He said again to reassure her.  
"We're not really friends. Kat never stroked my thigh the way you are doing right now. I don't kiss my friends the way I kiss you. I also never woke up after a sleepover with Sandi on top of me."  
"Are you sure? I had fantasies about that sort of thing in high school." She quickly grabbed the pillow next to her and hit him upside the head causing Charles to fall off the bed.  
"I'm sorry. Are you okay?" She said rushing to his side momentarily forgetting about a dead high school friend.  
"I'm fine. You are unbelievably feisty sometimes. I think that's why I love you." Charles said in a near daze just before he realized what he just said.  
"You love me." She said freezing up for a moment.  
"I just drove 5 hours in the rain to make sure that you were okay not caring about my paper due Monday. I'm pretty sure that's love. I was so worried when I heard you crying in the background." She didn't know what to say so she kissed him again.  
"Please don't leave me." She mumbled between kisses on the floor. "I love you, too."  
Stacy was never planning on telling her future child that she and Charles got together the night that her childhood friend died. Said future child would also not know about the sex that night, which she completely blamed on whatever Ashley gave her. Actually, as far as the child in her uterus would ever know, mommy and daddy didn't have sex until they were married two years later, despite the fact that they lived together before then.  
Being with Charles took the edge off of the funeral even though he didn't come with her. He was going to but then Sandi said something in the parking lot and her new boyfriend felt it was best not to cause problems at someone else's funeral. She spent the whole thing crying on Quinn's shoulder.  
That was the last time she saw Quinn in person. It wasn't like there was some great falling out between the two. It was just they were too busy to really stay in touch. Quinn was a nanny to two adorable girls in addition to being a full-time student. Stacy was just as busy with her new relationship, school, her internship, and Charles starting his own Internet design company called Feisty IT. Due to a falling out with Charles the second, her Charles was doing the entire thing without daddy's money. That meant a lot of sleepless nights for both of them and no time to e-mail old friends. That also meant that Charles's vintage porn collection went on the auction block to pay for startup. It wasn't that Stacy meant to stop talking to Quinn it was just before she realized it, well over a year went by without a single e-mail from her former high school friend and Quinn was on the bestseller list for writing a tell all about her recently dead boss. She tried to call Quinn to send her condolences, but all she got was a disconnected cell phone and an e-mail address that no longer worked.  
\-------   
Unfortunately, Tiffany's funeral was not the last time she saw Sandi. Even her mom's connections could not keep Sandi at Potomac University with her 1.2 GPA compared to Stacy's 3.8 GPA. Sandi said she transferred to Lawndale State to help take care of her sick grandmother. Anybody who knew Sandi as well as her knew Sandi would never take care of a grandparent, even if her grandmother didn't die six years earlier. Due to the similar subject areas of their majors, they unfortunately had classes together and Sandi used her as a means to pass. At first, she resisted, but it was a little too easy to fall into old patterns. Before she knew it, she was recommending Sandi for a position at the station post graduation. This was probably Stacy's biggest regret next to not realizing Tiffany had a serious eating disorder that eventually killed her.  
Within a year of being at the station, Sandi was already sleeping with the station owner, even though he was still married. Stacy felt most sorry for little Alexandra, her boss's daughter, who lost a stepmother who actually loved her like a daughter. Stacy remembered all too well losing Lana because her father was a bastard.  
Sleeping with the boss was probably the only reason why Sandi still had a job. Just like high school, Stacy was covering for her all the time and was doing most of the work without getting any credit. Although, unlike high school, this was happening without Stacy being completely passive about it.  
Despite Sandi's lack of talent and work ethic, 13 months later Sandi was the new Mrs. Richardson with her very own morning news show. Instead of creating original content for the station's webpage, Stacy was stuck being on Sandi's staff. Essentially her new job was to make Sandi look good. This meant doing research on every guest that came on the show. Stacy even wrote the questions that Sandi would ask everyone. Her husband said that the hard hitting questions were one of the few reasons why anyone actually watched that excuse for morning TV trash. Stacy personally believed that the shows somewhat decent ratings had something to do with Sandi's most recent breast augmentation. The show was number one in its time slot with 18 to 34 year old males for a reason.  
Some may ask Stacy why she stayed at a job she absolutely hated with a boss she secretly fantasized about killing sometimes. There were lots of reasons why she didn't leave and the number one reason was Alexandria, who was currently going by the nickname Alexis or Lexis. Sandi made her go by a different name because she found Alexandria too old fashioned. Stacy personally believes it was because Alexandria was the name of her husband's fourth wife.  
When she met the adorable little blonde headed seven year old girl nine years ago, they instantly became friends because Stacy knew what it was like to be dumped by your biological mother and ignored by your father. She couldn't leave Alexandria to be turned into a Sandi clone. She already watched one good friend be destroyed by Sandi and she wouldn't let it happen again without a fight. Even though it seemed like the worst has happened already, she couldn't just leave.  
Of course, on the really bad days, Stacy spent her entire lunch break surfing find-me-a-good-job dot com. Unfortunately, the economy sucked and there wasn't really anything better even in the newspaper world. Even though Stacy was willing to commute to DC, she still could not find a new position, unless she wanted to do freelance. Sometimes, she thought she waited too long hoping her boss would get tired of Sandi and things would go back to the way they were before.  
The major reason why she was stuck working for Sandi the evil was every time Stacy did get an interview, her current boss would find out and sabotage it. God she hated Sandi. At 28, it was too easy to see through her fake smile and lies.  
Even though everything in her professional life was an absolute disaster, her personal life couldn't be better. She and Charles would be celebrating their six year anniversary in June and she was currently four months pregnant with a little girl who would be named Tiffany Ruttheimer-Rowe. Even before the wedding, she told Charles that their first daughter would be named Tiffany. He instantly agreed as long as none of their future children would have the first named Charles. She was fine with that.  
Of course, being pregnant made the situation with Sandi even more miserable. Pregnancy hormones made it 1000 times more impossible to keep her annoyance to herself every time Sandi insulted her work or forced her to work late. Running around doing ridiculous errands for your condescending bitch of a boss was even more annoying when you had sore feet and had to pee every 10 minutes. The throwing up at inappropriate times wasn't making things better either.  
"How long were you on your feet this morning?" Charles asked as he met her at the Starbucks down the street from the station. Because Sandi was absolutely crazy, she was working on a Saturday. Maybe Sandi was avoiding her daughter's new friend/rival who acted a lot like Quinn's sister but dressed like Quinn but more modern. She was also a lot taller with dark hair and features that reminded her of Tiffany. Chloe apparently had no trouble going for Sandi's jugular, even though she was always really polite to Stacy and everyone else.  
Sandi promised Alexis that she would take her shopping today with the rest of the fashion club, only to back out at the last minute with the excuse of having to work. Stacy was brought into make the story real. Because Alexis's father was leaving for a month-long business trip that day, she's still got access to the platinum card.  
"Two or 3 hours. I don't really remember nor actually care. Thank god her husband is slightly less insane and let me leave when he showed up for a goodbye kiss before leaving for BWI. Then again, he actually knows I am pregnant." Stacy said as she got up from one of the outdoor seats that she was sitting in, as she waited for her husband to come get her.  
"She doesn't know you're pregnant? You threw up on her shoes last week." Charles asked in puzzlement as he held the door open.  
"Which was why she made me come in on a Saturday for no good reason, other than to torture me and to get out of spending time with the one teenager that isn't afraid of her. She thinks I'm developing bulimia to deal with all the weight I have gained recently. You don't even want to know what she e-mailed me today." Stacy said with a sigh as she walked inside.  
"God, she's more insane then when she was in high school." Charles mumbled under his breath.  
"You think." Stacy said as she checked her cell phone to see an incoming text message from her boss from hell.  
"She wants me to bring her a cappuccino when I come back to the office." Stacy said in irritation.  
"Give me your phone. I'm going to text message your resignation right now."  
"I can't quit."  
"Yes you can. The company is doing quite well right now. You're a web journalist. All you need is wi-fi and something you can type on. If Brittany can start a blog, so can you." Charles said raising a valid point again. He raised the same point every time they have this argument.  
"The last time I try to quit Sandi, threatened to do an exposé on your company guaranteed to make everybody leave Feisty IT in seconds. Also, 20% of your business comes from her husband's stations. Things are too uncertain now with the economy to lose that much business."  
"I really don't care. You hate that job and the stress can't be good for little Tiffany. Think of the baby." Charles said pointing to her baby bump.  
"I am thinking of the baby. I don't want to be homeless. I'm also thinking of Alexis. If I leave, nobody will be around that actually cares about her." She argued.  
"Sandi and her absentee husband need to deal with their own child. You're being irrational. If worse comes to worst, I can always go crawling back to my daddy and get my trust fund reinstated." Even after nearly six years of marriage, Stacy really didn't know why Charles and his dad stopped talking to each other but she knows it involved her in some way and that's why her husband wouldn't tell her.  
"You don't have to do that. We will think of…" Stacy was cut off by still warm hot chocolate being spilled on her brand new baby blue maternity business suit. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a maternity suit that meets Sandi's strict standards?  
"I'm so sorry. I will pay for your dry cleaning." Stacy heard a voice say that she hasn't heard in years as she started to clean up the chocolate.  
"Oh my god, Quinn is that you?"  
To be continued.


	6. With a Life Like Mine, No Wonder I Spend So Much Time Hiding At Starbucks.

The drive to the Lawndale police department was longer than it should have been, due to the suburban detour to Lawndale Valley… or was it Lawndale Hills? You would really think that developers would show a little bit more creativity.

As far as she was concerned, Chloe could spend a little bit more time in lock up. The only thing that stopped Quinn from thinking about strangling her own child was listening to Charles and Stacy tell the story of how the two got together complete with making out every 30 seconds. Seriously, how oblivious was she in high school that she didn't realize that Charles and Stacy were already starting to become close.

Sometimes, Quinn couldn't believe how self-absorbed she was the last time she called Lawndale home. No wonder David thought that she lacked a certain amount of depth back then; she really did. Not that she was thinking about David again, even if he looked better now than he did 12 years ago.

Other than the occasional arguing over the devil of local morning television and her adopted spawn, Quinn could obviously tell that the two loved each other very much. After being friends for over 11 years and being married for almost six years, they still acted like newlyweds. She was sure that if she was not in the car they probably would have done something that was illegal in most states. Personally, Quinn is surprised that they separated long enough for Stacy to go upstairs.

"Coffee?" Charles asked her as they waited in the kitchen for Stacy to come back after changing into something not covered in hot chocolate. Moments like this made her wish she sent the girls to one of the private schools in the area, without the corrupted influence of the fashion cult. Then again, according to Jodie's husband, prep school kids were worse.

"No, thank you. Coffee isn't strong enough right now. I can't believe she did something this stupid. I am too young to be dealing with psychotic teenagers. She is such her mother's daughter. Lindsay did this sort of thing all the time but usually coke was involved." Quinn mumbled to herself.

"Alexis is much more influential than most drugs. I would offer you something from the liquor cabinet but we are supposedly heading down to a police station any minute now." Charles said as he poured himself a cup.

"It would probably be best to save the liquor until after my psychotic teenage daughter is locked into her room for being an idiot and a teenager. I don't know why she was shoplifting when she has a nine figure trust fund all to herself. Actually, I should probably lock her in Bianca's room with padded walls and bars on the windows. It will add a little something extra to the grounding." Quinn said as she imagined Chloe's horror at being stuck in that room.

"How did you find another house in Lawndale formerly occupied by a schizophrenic? Your family has the best real estate agent ever." Charles asked as he walked back over to her. Apparently, her sister's old room was legendary.

"I didn't. It is the same house. The people who bought it from my parents post-divorce, never got around to remodeling that room. It now belongs to the child you met at Starbucks, who doesn't know when to shut up." As she mentioned the old house, Charles gave her this strange look.

"Everybody looks at me like I'm crazy when they find out about me buying my old house. Daria and Lindy both say I am going through some crazy quarter life crisis due to the divorce from hell and dad almost dying. The price was really good and it was completely furnished. I'm perfectly adjusted." Quinn said defensively.

The two Js also said the exact same thing, at least they were nicer about it. However, they were also trying to set her up with their friend Dave who worked at the school. Why did Quinn have this strange feeling that Dave from Lawndale high was David from high school? He was also 10 times hotter than he was when she was in high school. Not that it matter because it didn't. Okay, so if he was not a dick or treating her daughters, she would consider sleeping with him. However, that would be inappropriate. Life sucks sometimes.

"I seriously doubt that anybody would want to recapture their high school years, except for someone who actually saw that as the best years of their life." She couldn't help but think of Kevin when he said that. His first four years of high school were probably the best part of his life. According to Michael, that was pretty much all he talked about.

"The only good thing that happened to me in high school was Stacy and that didn't happen until around graduation." Charles said smiling.

"Even though I was technically popular, I didn't like it that much either. I think Stacy was one of the few good things about my high school years too. I was too busy trying to make people like me, to actually like myself back then. Do you have any idea how hard it was to act stupid? I'm much happier now." She said smiling.

"I can tell. You just carried on an entire conversation without mentioning clothing or dieting. You know that she missed you." Charles said obviously referring to Stacy.

"I missed her too. I didn't mean to lose touch. Things got so chaotic in college that I really wasn't talking to anybody from Lawndale except for some of the Js and Lindy. By the time things calm down, I couldn't find a single Stacy Rowe living in Lawndale County." Quinn really did try to find Stacy during the chaotic time after Lindsey died and she ended up with two preteens. She needed all the help she could get. She tried a few times after that but never could find anything.

"That's probably because she was Stacy Ruttheimer by that point. After divorce number two, her father moved to the other side of the country. He currently lives in a Seattle suburb with his two new daughters. He had to get away after he caught his trophy wife screwing his best friend on his boat. It was what he deserved after what he did to his first wife." Charles said before taking a drink of his coffee.

"I understand completely. I did the same thing after my divorce. Although, I waited about a year before I moved across the country. Also, in my case it was Chloe who caught the bastard fucking his barely legal co-star in my bed. Same results, so it doesn't matter." Quinn said with a sigh.

"He cheated on you? Fucking bastard." Charles mumbled under his breath. Quinn was almost 90% sure she liked this version of Charles a lot more than the guy who used creepy pickup lines on her in high school.

"Does anybody in this town pay attention to the Brittany Taylor report?" Quinn asked with another sigh.

"Until 20 minutes ago, I didn't know that the wonderful Quinn, formerly of Lawndale high, was the best-selling author and former wife of TV heart throb Jonathan Starr, Melody Powers. That does explain certain comments from your daughter Bianca earlier in the day. The man is a complete idiot for indulging in the carnal delights of one without any talent whatsoever, when he already had a goddess like you at home. You were probably too feisty for someone who couldn't appreciate how wonderful you are. Would you mind signing a couple of your books for me? They would be quite collectible." Okay, that's the guy she remembered from high school, except he was trying to cheer her up instead of getting in her pants.

"I see some things don't really change. I will sign a few later. Consider it my contribution to the baby's college fund. I don't really want to talk about Jonathan. It's over. So how bad are things between Sandi and Stacy?" Quinn asked changing the subject. Talking about her bastard ex-husband was not one of her favorite things. She'd rather have dinner with Eric, than take part in any conversation involving Jonathan.

"Preferring to talk about the evil one over your ex-husband is a bad sign." Charles said giving her a worried look.

"Trust me I know. How bad is it? Why has she not quit yet?" Quinn asked the question that has been on her mind the entire car ride there.

"Let's put it this way, her job is the only thing we argue about. She worked there for almost four years before Sandi started working as a lackey for the woman she replaced. The viper slept with the boss and takes over. That was the only way she was going to get ahead with her skill set. The bitch arranged everything so Stacy does all the work and she gets all the credit." Charles said angrily.

"Just like high school. I just thought that Stacy was stronger than that. She stood up to her once before. Why can't she do it again?" Quinn asked in puzzlement.

"There are a lot of factors including Tiffany's death. I think she blames herself and therefore she doesn't want to leave Alexis behind to suffer the same fate."

"That wasn't her fault." Quinn said understanding exactly what Stacy was going through. She blamed herself for what happened to Tiffany for a long time.

"Try telling Stacy that. Things are not completely like they were in high school. I don't think she was secretly daydreaming of killing Sandi back then."

"No, just cutting her hair." Quinn said with a laugh trying to defuse the tense situation.

"I absolutely hate what's going on. It's like Stacy has the work equivalent of battered wife syndrome. It's not like she hasn't tried to leave. Sandi just makes it very hard to. Stacy has been looking for a new job for three years but hasn't been able to find anything. Every time Stacy gets an interview, the great bitch sabotages it or she somehow convinces Stacy that she can't leave. I'm trying to persuade Stacy to do her own blog right now but she won't leave because Sandi threatened to sabotage my business." Charles said angrily again.

"I seriously doubt she has the power to do that." Quinn scoffed.

"Only in her own mind. I don't think I was that narcissistic when I was trying to be the high school version of James Bond. It really doesn't matter what Sandi can really do. As long as Stacy buys into the threats, nothing is going to change." Charles said.

After that, she moved conversation to the safer ground of Charles's company. She could only keep up because her other daughter brought new meaning to the term computer nerd.

"Do I look pregnant in this?" Stacy asked once she returned downstairs. Quinn had to force herself to keep from laughing because unlike in the earlier outfit, Stacy looked very pregnant.

"You are pregnant and I enjoyed getting you that way." Charles said smoothly reminding Quinn of his high school self. That was the perfect answer.

"Good answer. I may let you get me out of this suit later." Okay now Quinn had the sudden urge to throw up at the couple behavior. She saw exactly where those hands were going. There was a reason why her current story was a period piece with nowhere near as much love as her books usually had. Maybe she was a little bit over happily ever after now that she was living in a post marriage world.

"I didn't need to know that." Quinn said as she interrupted the now making out couple.

"Sorry. Did you get a hold of your lawyer?" Stacy asked straightening up her suit.

"Brooke said she's sending someone to the station that has a lot of experience with this sort of thing." Quinn was surprise that her mom's law firm had someone who specialized in spoiled brats acting out. However, her mom's law firm specialized in working with the wealthy and self-absorbed of the adult variety, so it wasn't that much of a stretch.

"Let's go." Quinn said grabbing the bag that was becoming a permanent part of her collection as part of Chloe's punishment.

"Your chariot waits. I assume we're taking the SUV? Charles asked as he opened the door for the two.

"Yes, unless you want to put the fashion club in the trunk." Stacy joked.

"Tempting, so very tempting." Quinn mumbled to herself.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This wasn't the first time she had to get someone out of jail. At least, this time she was not stupid enough to spend the bail money on tourist trap cowgirl chic that did not belong in Virginia. After getting Lindsey out of jail more times than she cared to remember, Quinn learned the most important thing was to bring her lawyer with her and a credit card with no limit. Quinn was already planning to deduct the money from Chloe's allowance for the rest of the year.

Unfortunately, Brooke was unable to keep her mother from finding out that her baby granddaughter got arrested for shoplifting. Maybe, Bianca was responsible for that particular piece of information coming out, but whatever. Quinn didn't want to know why her mother was at her house this afternoon. Quinn already had the perfect punishment plan for Bianca after a very interesting conversation about interne opportunities at Feisty IT.

Quinn really did not want to talk about the conversation she just survived in the car with her mother. Quinn was 90% sure, her mom was channeling grandma Barksdale as she criticized her parenting skills. Quinn was so pissed off that she mentioned that unlike Helen, she was actually around for her children. She may have also mentioned how she never put her career in front of her children's needs.

Being the savvy woman that she was, her mother decided to use this as a matchmaking opportunity. Then again, maybe her mom saw this as a means to punish Quinn for stating the obvious.

The associate that her mother has been desperately trying to set her up with for the last two months was sent to get the fashion club out of jail. According to her mom, Ted Jefferson was an expert in this field but Quinn personally felt that was just an excuse to make her miserable. Her mom was getting really good at driving her crazy again.

She instantly recognized the light headed lawyer with the gum fixation that met her in the parking lot. Quinn could not believe her mom tried to set her up with a guy who almost dated Daria in high school. That was wrong on so many levels. Quinn had a rule about dating anyone that her sister would have dated. In addition, he was not her type (and she was pretty sure she wasn’t his). The only thing going for him was he was a nice person.

She didn't recognize the name Ted Jefferson. If she did, she would have had a legitimate reason to stop the matchmaking before this forced setup. Maybe her mom probably didn't put two and two together. Then again, her mom was too busy kissing Eric's ass, she probably did not know about it in the first place.

When she asked later about the name change, he told her that his parents were not very happy about him joining the 'corporate rat race' and essentially disowned him. She did remember her mom telling her several times that Ted paid his way through law school without any help from his parents. Now she knew why.

He was in his second year as a junior associate at Vitale, Davis, Horowitz, Riordan, Schrecter, Schrecter, & Barksdale-Morgendorffer-Schrecter. (Yes, her mom actually went by that name now. Go ahead and laugh, because Quinn does.)

She also knew, from various conversations with her mother, that Ted did most of the firm's Pro Bono work. Quinn personally felt her mom hired a young idealist like Ted to make herself feel better about selling her soul, and possibly her first marriage, to become a partner. Then again, Quinn was contemplating completely changing her graphic novel just so she could get it published, so she couldn't say anything.

"I know you're nervous, but don't be. This isn't the first time I've handled a shoplifting case. You have nothing to worry about." Ted reassured her.

"Did you win any of those cases?" Quinn mumbled as the officer walked the two back to where Chloe was being held.

"Yes. Although the last one involved a homeless teenager stealing supplies for her diabetes from Drugs 'N Stuff."

"Noble shoplifting." Quinn mumbled to herself. Quinn had a sudden desire to donate Chloe's allowance to a few nonprofits that deal with that sort of thing. Maybe her kids were spoiled.

"You deal with those sorts of cases? I thought my mom's law firm mostly dealt with greedy corporations that screw everyone over." Quinn said almost impressed.

"Usually, but that's how we pay for doing something noble. It was your mother's idea. More people want to work with a firm that does a lot of public outreach. At least, that is how she sold it to the other partners. It was why she brought me to the firm from the public defender's office. I still get to work with the same type of clients, but here I have more resources and have time to work with each client individually. Don't worry; your daughter is in good hands." Ted said with a kind smile.

"That's good to know. My daughter's legal fees can go to those type of cases." Quinn said out loud.

"I was instructed that we wouldn't be billing for this." Ted told her with slight confusion. Of course, her mom would say that.

"Consider this another part of my daughter's punishment. It is coming out of her trust fund. She can afford it. She needs to learn that stupidity has consequences. You probably don't defend girls who can actually own the entire store once their trust fund matures." Quinn mumbled the last part under her breath as she walked into the room. She was desperately trying not to channel her inner Jake but that when out the window the moment Ted shut the door of the private interrogation room.

"What the hell were you thinking?" She did not give Chloe time to respond as she continued. "It's not like I don't buy you anything you want, within reason. I know that I have been distracted with Grandpa and getting the new book out on time, but if you need more of my time, just ask. You know I will always make time for you, even if all your friends think that I'm your big sister. You and your sister come first." That was something that Quinn always made a point of telling her children in words and deed. She didn't want to be her mother.

"Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt, Mom." Chloe said sardonically. "I'm not the one who orchestrated this cry for attention, Alexis was."

"I don't think it worked considering the dragon lady sent her assistant to take care of this." Quinn mumbled.

"Stacy is cool. Actually, the only time Alexis is not a complete bitch is when she is around Stacy. She brings out her human side. I don't know why Stacy is still working for step mommy dearest." Quinn felt like laughing at the nickname for Sandi.

"Stockholm syndrome?" Quinn spoke just loud enough for Chloe to hear. Stacy needed to get the hell out of that place. Sandi was treating Stacy as her personal slave. The wicked witch of morning television had called Stacy 15 times on the way there from Stacy and Charles' house.

"How did the assistant interviews go?" Chloe asked in the most abrupt subject change ever.

"If you think that was a safer subject you are sadly mistaken young lady. The experience was so bad I am not even going to get an assistant anymore. Your sister is going to be my personal gofer instead or at least she was. I think I need to find someone else. You may be taking over that position for her, but without pay, after this little stunt. Just tell me what happened, so I can determine your punishment. I was half-tempted to let you spend the night here but I'm not that cruel. You know I did it to Lindsey, more than once actually." By her cold expression, Chloe should know that she meant business.

"I know. You should hire Stacy as your assistant. God knows she needs a boss that is not an abusive bitch. You have to try her low fat chocolate chip cookies. They are so good." Quinn was seriously trying not to roll her eyes right then as her daughter tried to talk her way out of this.

"The distraction is not working. However, I will take your suggestion under advisement." Quinn said getting irritated. Ted instantly picked up on this.

"Ms. Morgendorffer, could you please tell me exactly what happened this afternoon?" Ted asked taking over.

"He actually wants to know what happened before he starts to judge me. We were taking part in the annual summer wardrobe search courtesy of Alexis' father's guilt gift. Everything was going great until my bag started beeping when we walked out of the Fashion Connection. Before you say anything, I was not the one who put the $1300 dress in my bag that could double as a T shirt. You know I like my clothes not to be hooker chic. That's more an Alexis' thing. Also, if I'm going to shoplift, I'm going to be smart enough to remove the tags before I walk out of the store. She said she got our bags confused. I doubt that considering my bag is a completely different color." Chloe sounded skeptical. Quinn knew what happened by that point but had to ask one more question.

"What type of expression did Alexis' have on her face when you were caught with the merchandise?" Quinn asked as neutrally as possible.

"She was smirking until they brought her back inside along with the rest of the club." As bright as her daughter was it only took her a few moments to realize what happened. "The bitch set me up." Chloe said in an angry voice but there was something in her eyes that Quinn couldn’t read.

"Ms. Richardson was probably completely unaware of the cameras in the store or the fact that they would assume that the four of you were working together as a team." Ted added to the conversation. At that, Quinn mumbled several expletives to herself. She personally blamed Sandi for this.

"Can you just work on getting Tatiana and Ashley out. They had nothing to do with what is going on." Chloe asked almost pleading. "Their parents are going to kill first and ask questions later."

"Let me see what I can do." Ted said as he got up from his chair. "What about you?"

"We can figure that out later." Chloe said with a stressed out sigh.

"I will go talk to my other clients then. I assumed Alexis' has her own lawyer?" Ted asked just before he opened the door. Quinn nodded her head yes. Although, Sandi was too caught up in her own little world to come down here herself, she did send a lawyer.

"She's currently trying to convince the store not to press charges. However, I am sure her lawyer is only looking out for her best interest. You may want to talk to the store yourself. If you can get the other two girls released now, that would be good. In case it helps, my brother in law, Nikki, is their spokesperson." Quinn added that last part just in case. Sometimes nepotism could be used for the greater good.

"That's right. I can use that. I'll see what I can do. It's always easier when the other parties are most likely innocent. However, it is possible that the other two girls may have conspired with Alexis to set you up." Ted said cynically. Quinn knew he had a point, but only because the girls were essentially sheep.

"They are my friends. They wouldn't do that to me." Chloe said defensively.

"I was under the impression that Alexis was also your friend." Ted added.

"Lexis Richardson does not have friends, only yes men and I was never one of those.” Again there was that unreadable expression on Chloe’s face as she spoke. “Tatiana and Ashley are my friends and they just happened to be under the spell of the wicked witch of Lawndale High. Just make sure that they get out of this so their parents don't kill either of them."

"You are the client." With that, Ted was gone.

"Are you going to say 'I told you so' now?" Chloe asked with her head noun on the table.

"No." Quinn said as she grabbed her daughter's hand.

"I can't believe she did this. I knew she was sca-jealous but I didn't think she would go this far." Chloe said almost in tears at this point.

"She has issues and I think your assessment was right. This was a cry for attention but I think her friends were the ones that she wanted to notice her again, like they did before you got here. Let's be honest by this point I seriously doubt Alexis' parents care about her."

"I wasn't trying to steal her friends." Chloe responded with red eyes.

"It doesn't matter baby. That's the way she saw it. Let's just not worry about that now."

"Am I still grounded for life?" Okay, so she accidentally said that during the one phone call but whatever. She was angry at the time but she still came.

"No but I think you have too much free time and I don't want you hanging out with the fashion cult for a little while, without supervision."

"But they are my friends."

"If they are really your friends, they will visit you at your brand new after school job, preferably of the non-paying volunteer variety. Evan can still come over." She was expecting her daughter to whine about it not smile.

"Can I be a candy striper?" Chloe asked innocently.

"No. I think your grandma can use a clerical intern." Chloe's smile disappeared instantly.

"You are so cruel." She said with a pout.

"I know."

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Even though she was sure it was an obvious set up, she was happy that her mom sent Ted. The man was a miracle worker and surprisingly could go head to head with Alexis' lawyer, who was trying to blame everything on Chloe, despite the evidence. In the end, Ted called the corporate offices of the Fashion Connection to let them know that their spokesperson, Nikki Bryant's, teenage niece was arrested for shoplifting in their Lawndale store. 20 minutes later after mentioning how bad publicity from such an incident would be, the company dropped all charges. Everything from that moment went downhill.

The first indicator of how bad things were going to be was her hysterical mom showing up to the precinct to yell at her, the cops, all the lawyers involved, and her granddaughter. For the sake of not causing a scene that would end up in the papers, she bit her tongue until she got outside.

"Mom just shut up. I am an adult. I don't need you to rescue me all the time. I also don't need you meddling in my life. Stop trying to tell me how to raise my children. Stop trying to tell me how to take care of dad. You left him for your new lawyer husband and partnership." Quinn said bitterly

"I did not leave your father." Her mom said in her defense.

"If that is what you need to believe. Stop trying to set me up with guys you think I should be with because I really don't trust your judgment. It's my life and I'm going to live it my way. I will be the one to deal with the consequences. You have no idea what happened today. You need to stop jumping to conclusions." Quinn finished as she stared her mother down.

"Like you did?" Chloe mumbled. Quinn was expecting her mom to say something but she seemed too shock to respond.

"I did listen to you, eventually. Mom, if you really want to help me right now take Chloe home and let her tell the story about how her so-called friend framed her for shoplifting. You can give her pointers on how to deal with people who pretend to be your friend but stab you in the back anyway. I'm going to go be the responsible adult and explain what happened to Tatiana and Ashley's parents, as well as, why they need to keep their children away from Lexis." Quinn said with another sigh.

"I could come with you." Helen said in near acquiescence. Of course, she could be looking for another opportunity to rake Quinn over the coals.

"I need to do this myself. You can wait for me at my house to yell at me about everything I'm doing wrong in the privacy of my own home. You like it better at my house anyway." Helen looked ready to yell but Quinn just walked away. She would most likely be paying for that later but it was worth it.

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Dealing with the other parents was worse than dealing with her own parent. She wasn't surprised that it went so badly. Most of her fellow parents didn't take her seriously because she was 27. Most of the time they thought she was the big sister, the nanny, the trophy wife, or, the reckless/lose idiot who got pregnant at 13. There were also those that thought she was Lindsay's lover before her death and that is why she was the one asked to take care of her daughters. This situation was not different at all, although, Quinn was sure Sandi was responsible for their misconceptions.

Quinn knew from the angry looks she received from Tatiana and Ashley's parents, that Sandi and Lexis' were already manipulating things to make Lexis' look like a saint and Chloe look like the devil. She was essentially told that Chloe wasn't allowed around either of their daughters anymore because she was a bad influence. They didn't even give her time to explain what really happened. They automatically believed whatever Sandi came up with.

What made Quinn even more upset was Ashley's mom said she didn't want her daughter spending time around somebody whose mother practiced an 'alternative lifestyle' in addition to all the other BS that the evil one told her. Quinn quickly figured out what she meant when she called Quinn several homophobic slurs as she was walking back to the car to drop off Alexis.

Quinn also remembered Joey telling her about a certain parent who refused to let her daughter be in any of his or his husband's classes after she caught the two holding hands at the grocery store ones. Quinn now knew that Ashley was the student in question.

Quinn may be heterosexual but she couldn't stand ignorant people. Therefore, she could not be held responsible for what she said next. She would not repeat how she responded to being called certain nasty things, due to the high level of expletives ,but basically she told Ashley's mom that she didn't want her daughter associating with idiots.

Things were worse at Sandi's house. Sandi was expecting her to kiss her ass like in high school, but Quinn just wasn't that person anymore. Sandi could do whatever she wanted to Quinn, but never mess with her children or her friends. That just made her angry and brought out the person who barbecued her husband's things when she found out he was sleeping around.

"I know exactly what you tried to do to my daughter and I will not take it lying down. I'm not 15 anymore. I'm not afraid of you nor do I need your acceptance. I am my own person and so is Chloe. Why don't you actually focus on taking care of your stepdaughter instead of making everyone else miserable? However, that would mean you would have to care about someone other than yourself and your narcissism. Stop using Lexis as another pawn in this ridiculous game of yours." Quinn said walking away from the ice queen, but was stopped by Sandi making some ridiculous threats that Quinn would not even bother repeating. There were several expletives involved along with Sandi calling Quinn a not so nice word for lesbian that starts with a D. At some point during that expletive filled tirade, little miss narcissus threatened to make Chloe's high school experience miserable by turning her into a social pariah and getting her arrested again. Not that Sandi actually used the word pariah because that would be beyond her limited vocabulary. Quinn just laughed.

"I'm not afraid of you. You have no idea how powerful I am. Stay away from my daughters." Quinn told her icily.

"How can you be powerful? What was the last thing you did other than write an autobiography with your washed up pop princess girlfriend." Quinn wanted to laugh again. Apparently, Sandi still had no idea who she really was. Her personal net worth was more than that of Sandi's husband not counting her daughters' trust funds. In addition to her own earnings from her books and the movie deals, Lindsey left Quinn a lot of money. Quinn personally believed that was done for the sole purpose of leaving her parents without a penny.

She may have made bad choices in life, but Lindsey was a genius with business or rather choosing people to take care of her business once she fired her parents. Her business manager, who later became Quinn's business manager, bought in early to Banana Computers, Peoplebook, find-me-a-good-job, and Search IT. She also had the good sense to get out before the bubble busted.

"Sandi, you don't know me. You never did." Quinn said walking to the door once more. "Stacy, it was good seeing you again. If you ever feel like leaving Satan the boss behind, give me a call. Melody Powers has a job for you." Quinn said smirking knowing that Sandi would not know what she was talking about.

Because she did not want to ruin her exit by waiting for Stacy in the car for god knows how long, Quinn decided to walk home. 15 minutes later, when it started pouring, she realized that was a very big mistake. There was nothing more fun than walking in the rain in late march in Maryland.

She was just about to call for a cab when a black BMW pulled up beside her and stopped. She looked over to see that it was David. Just what she needed. It was the perfect ending to the worst day ever besides her dad's last heart attack.

"Should I ask why you're walking alone in the rain without an umbrella at 9:00 at night?" David asked her in puzzlement.

"Maybe I am too shallow to remember to bring an umbrella." Quinn said sardonically as she started walking again. David followed slowly beside her.

"Okay, I think I deserve that. I never thought you were really shallow." He almost sounded sincere.

"Then why did you say it?" Quinn asked wondering if she was talking about what happened a few hours ago or what happened 12 years ago.

"It's complicated." He said quietly. "It would be a lot easier to have this conversation if you got in the car. I can drive you home." David offered.

"That's fine. I rather walk." Quinn said in irritation.

"If you died of pneumonia, I'm going to be dealing with two emotionally distraught teenagers for the rest of this semester. Grief counseling is very time consuming. I'm really doing myself a favor." He said with a slight smile.

"I'd rather catch a cab." Quinn said flatly as she took a few more steps. Unfortunately, her adorable $1000 shoes broke at that moment.

"Quinn, get in the car." He nearly shouted at her.

"Fine," she said opening the door. "I'm only doing this because my shoe broke." Quinn said as an excuse as she got into the car.

"If that's what you need to believe." David responded.

"I believe you owe me an apology for acting like an ass 12 years ago and this afternoon." Quinn said as she put on her seatbelt.

"I didn't mean to make it sound like I was surprised you were a writer because I thought you were too stupid to write a book that was deeper than a normal romance novel. Your writing is very complex. I always thought that you were intelligent. I just didn't think that you would ever realize how smart you really were underneath the makeup and designer clothes. That doesn't mean that I'm not glad that you did." That made her feel a little better.

"Then why did you tell me that you wouldn't date me because you thought I was too shallow? You were one of the few people I trusted enough to actually see the real me. What you said really hurt." Quinn said grabbing her cell out of her purse as a distraction. She had a few dozen messages from Chloe, Jane, Bianca, and her mother.

"Maybe I was trying to soften the blow." That resulted in Quinn giving him a 'are you crazy' look.

"If that was the lie, I hate to know what the truth was." Quinn said frostily.

"This isn't going so well. Why does it seem like you take everything I say as an insult?" David asked with a long-suffering sigh.

"Probably because everything you say sounds like an insult." Quinn answered the sarcasm. "I know you can do better because my daughters trust you a lot more with their secrets than me."

"I'm not the mom. I'm an objective third party. It's easier to talk to somebody who's on the outside. According to my former fiancé, I have a habit of turning into a complete asshole in front of a beautiful person. I apologize for anything I have said or will say that you will find offensive."

"You think that I am beautiful?" Quinn asked in surprise.

"That's what you got from that?" David asked her in open mouth shock.

"I just survived the divorce from hell because my husband slept with an 18 year old in my bed. Chloe was the one who caught him. You probably already know that. My self-image is kind of messed up right now. Sometimes I think he cheated on me because I just wasn't enough to keep his interest. Maybe I wasn't smart enough are pretty enough for Jonathan." Quinn said honestly. This was the first time she told anyone about that particular insecurity. She was pretty sure David called Jonathan an ass but had no proof.

"You're beautiful now and you were beautiful back then. Actually, I think you're more beautiful now because you're yourself and not that person you pretended to be in high school. There's nothing wrong with you." She hoped he was telling the truth.

"Why didn't you say that back then?" Quinn asked turning slightly scarlet.

"Think of the situation like this, if your teenage daughter asked me out and I said yes, what would you have done?" David asked hypothetically.

"I would have cut off your dick. Of course, this would be after the statutory charges." Quinn said without thinking.

"Any parent in that situation would do the same. I'm sure your father would have done the same thing."

"Please, I think he's more likely to do that now." Quinn interrupted with a scoff. "You don't want to know what he's tried to do to my now ex-husband. The situation wasn't the same. I think your comparison is ridiculous. One, your less than four years older than me." She started but was cut off.

"There's a bigger difference between 16 and 20 and 27 and 31." David said trying to get her to see his point.

"You may have a point. If either of my daughters brought home a 20 year old boyfriend or girlfriend for that matter, I probably would be freaking out because… well, I know my daughters too well." Quinn said defensively.

"Probably more than you think." David mumbled under his breath but Quinn didn't think anything of it as she continued.

"Although, unlike certain teenagers who live in my house or steal all the food from my refrigerator because they might as well live at my house, I wasn't trying to sleep with you. Even if I were at the time, I was already over the age of consent. When I was 16, I did not even slow dance until the third date. I didn't kiss on the lips until date number 15. The only person that ever got that far is currently the chairperson of the Lawndale chapter of the Gay and Lesbian Teachers Association of America. I was 20 before I trusted anyone enough to…"

Quinn cut herself off before she told David about losing her virginity at 20 to some escort that Lindsey hired to pretend to be Quinn's boyfriend. Apparently, he was her birthday present. Although in her defense, Quinn had no idea he was an escort until years later at Lindsay's funeral. At that moment, Quinn was starting to wonder if any of her relationships with men were ever completely real.

"As someone that specializes in adolescent psychology, I would argue that you had severe intimacy problems and trust issues." David said ignoring what she almost told him. Why did she have a feeling that he knew what she almost said anyway by the smirk on his face.

"I know you're right. I was really good at letting people see the person I wanted them to see. Being shallow was my defense mechanism. The way you blew me off didn't help. At least, that didn't do anywhere near as much damage as my ex-husband did. I still stay up trying to figure out what I did wrong." She said being completely honest.

"How many dates does it take now before you're willing to slow dance?" She wasn't sure if he was joking or he was trying to analyze her. Maybe he was trying to get her to stop wallowing in herself pity.

"I don't know. I have not been on a real date since the divorce." Quinn said with a sigh.

"More trust issues?" He asked.

"Not completely. I'm currently driving myself slowly crazy with taking care of two children and my father. When would I have the time for a social life? I was trying to find an assistant to make things simpler but that isn't going so well. Why do I have a feeling you are going into doctor mode right now?" She said defensively.

"I'm just trying to figure out who you are right now." David answered.

"Good luck with that. Other than exhausted, I'm not sure who I am at the moment. Maybe I should consider therapy but when would I find a time? David, there is one big difference between reality and your hypothetical situation, you were never my psychologist." Quinn responded.

"I still had to be responsible. Dating your student was still highly inappropriate, when I was your tutor." She was half tempted to ask him if he would have said yes if she was not his student back than but she didn't want to know the answer to that question. It didn't matter.

"My 16-year-old self is angry, but my 27 year old self understands. Looking at this situation through mom eyes, it was inappropriate. I shouldn't have asked but I was unbelievably narcissistic at the time and maybe I was tired of being something I wasn't in front of everybody. However, you should have told me the real reason why you were saying no." Quinn chided him.

"Maybe, but would you have taken no for an answer under those circumstances?" David asked her, looking at her for a moment.

"Probably not." Quinn said with a laugh.

"It doesn't matter anymore. You can't change the past, only the present. I already know you are a wonderful mother, despite everything and a good writer." David said comforting her but she doubted his sincerity.

"Considering you see my children three times a week, I wonder if I really qualify as a good mother. You should probably know that Chloe got arrested for shoplifting this afternoon. That call came in 5 minutes after you ran away from me." Quinn said with an aggravated sigh.

"All things considered, I believe your children are pretty well adjusted. Chloe got arrested?" David said that last part as if he just heard what she actually said. "What happened?"

"Ask Chloe on Monday. I don't have enough time to tell you that entire story, unless you want to drive me to my old house in Malibu. Wait, how do you know where I live now? I never told you?" Quinn asked as she noticed they were only a few blocks away.

"Although I cannot divulge any specifics, one of your children mentioned in passing that their mom bought her old childhood house back." Quinn placed her head in her hands at that moment.

"Why do I have a feeling it was Bianca ranting about how crazy I am?" Quinn practically whispered.

"I can't answer that question." David said it in a way that essentially said, 'Yes, your teenager thinks you are insane. I'm starting to believe her.'

"You might as well have said yes. This is why I don't believe that good mother comment. I also don't believe the good writer compliment either. Even my own grandmother referenced to my work as 'housewife pornography'. Of course, all the symbolism went over her head but whatever. Have you read any of my books? You probably think their housewife porn like my grandmother."

"Yes, but they are really well written sex scenes. Your books are also a lot more than romance novels, otherwise they wouldn't be on the junior reading list at LHS. Well, at least, the stories that are not filled with sex scenes. I've actually read all your books." David said causing Quinn to become worried when she remembered her first book and the dedication.

"All the books? Even the dedications?"

"Yes. My now sister in law made me read the first book because she said the main character reminded her of me." At this point, Quinn was pretty sure his sister in law was the former fiancé that left him at the altar. She didn't say anything as David paused momentarily. Some conversations should be avoided at all cost.

"Was the main character based on me?" Like the conversation triggered by this particular question. Quinn had the sudden urge to run out in to traffic.

"Please don't make me answer that question."

"You should have just said yes." David said pulling in front of her house.

"Probably," Quinn said as she got out of the car. She wanted to make a run for it but her stupid bag got caught in the seat belt.

"I know that you are going through a tough time right now. If you need somebody to talk to, I am available." As he said this, she watched him write a phone number on the back of his business card and handed it to her. "That's my private cell phone number."

"What is your hourly rate outside of Lawndale high?" Quinn asked jokingly.

"I meant as a friend. Maybe, we could meet for coffee sometime? Although, don't bring Bianca."

"I wouldn't have to bring her along because she would follow us. Now, you know I'm going to say yes. Which one of my kids told you I had a Starbucks problem?" Quinn said as she just successfully untangled her purse.

"I can't answer that question. Because your kids are now watching through the window and giving each other high fives, I better let you go inside. Tell Chloe she might as well accompany her sister to my office first thing Monday." She turned around to actually see her children doing exactly what David said they were.

"Why am I not surprised? I guess I will see next you Saturday." Quinn said almost wistfully.

"Unless one of your children does something worth expulsion in the meantime."

"You never know, especially after what happened today. You may want to keep Chloe and Lexis separated to avoid bloodshed. She was responsible for the shoplifting thing. I better give you my cell phone number." Quinn said as she started digging in her purse for a pen.

"I already have it. Goodnight Quinn." David said as he pulled away.

Quinn was so happy that she managed to stay smiling as she was interrogated by her mother, Jane, and her daughters. The constant smiling probably just lead to more questions.


	7. This Is Not a Date, Maybe: part one

Quinn had a bad week. There was no other way to describe the last seven days other than bad, except, maybe as completely miserable. Sunday morning involved an extremely uncomfortable family brunch with Eric in attendance that she was being forced to host. Fortunately, for her, her new friend Monique gave her the phone numbers of every single place that delivered breakfast in the city.

Quality time with her clueless stepfather alone would make the morning intolerable. The additional stress of her children teasing each other with the use of mug shots, her mom still trying to get her to go out with Ted as she simultaneously criticized Quinn's parenting skills, and Jane teasing her about being rescued from the storm by her knight with a psychology degree increased the misery of the morning. Within the first 10 minutes alone, Quinn had the sudden urge to hide under various pieces of furniture. She had found her divorce proceedings less painful.

Low lights included Quinn having to physically separate Chloe and Bianca after Bianca started to pass around Chloe's mug shot from Saturday. The image was completely horrible and Chloe looked extremely washed out against the white background with her ivory skin and dark hair. The mug shot incident led to Eric making some ignorant comment about Quinn, as was the norm. Usually, it was some snide comment about the improbability of 'someone like her' becoming a writer. According to Eric, only ugly people were talented.

What wasn't normal was her father defending her to her mother and stepfather and essentially kicking both her mom and Eric out of the house. She was proud of her father, even if he started screaming as Eric shot back various insults. Actually, her father standing up for her was about the only good moment from Sunday.

Sunday evening went just as badly once she received a phone call from her brother in law. Somehow, Nikki found out about Ted's unique strategy to get Chloe out of the shoplifting charges. Nikki thought it was hilarious that his celebrity status finally did some good. Her brother in law had a very wicked sense of humor, just like Daria. Sometime during their 15-minute conversation, he accidentally let it slip that he and his lovely wife wouldn't be heading back to Lawndale until late May at the earliest. Quinn really wasn't paying attention to the specific prior commitment that was more important than her sister keeping a promise to help her take care of Jake. This led to Quinn screaming at her sister for essentially backing out on her promise to help. The argument only ended when Jane got her off the phone by giving her a cup of alcohol laced coffee and allowing her to complain about her sister for a good 30 minutes. Quinn knew the situation was bad when Jane actually took her side over Daria's.

Monday really was not a good day either. It began with more prodding from Jane before she hopped a train to New York about her 'date' with David Saturday. No matter how many times she told Jane that it was not a date she just wouldn't believe her.  
Lindy didn't believe Quinn about the date thing either when she told her about how messed up Saturday was over the phone Monday. Actually, come to think of it, Joey didn't believe her either as Quinn recounted the entire incident Wednesday during their midweek coffee as he updated her on certain events happening at Lawndale high. (This week was particularly juicy with the fashion cult trying to make Chloe as miserable as possible.)

Joey didn't believe her at all, to the point that when she said she wasn't interested in David in that way, he reminded her to bring condoms with her Saturday. (If she stopped at Drugs N' Stuff on the way home and bought a family pack it didn't mean anything. She had two teenage daughters and had no desire to become a grandmother before she turned 30. It was just practical to be prepared for anything.)

Unfortunately, a certain busybody mother of one of Chloe's now former friends just happened to hear Joey's little joke. Quinn saw her mouth open wide in confusion as she tried to figure out how that particular piece of information conflicted with the lesbian rumor started by the wicked witch of morning television. Then again, she probably just assumed Quinn was a slut anyway.

On Monday morning, Sandi the bitch broke the exclusive news that Lindsey Snow's former lover was now living in Lawndale with their two daughters. Quinn did not care at all that Sandi refer to her as Lindsey's lover. It wasn't the first time that particular accusation was made in the press and it certainly wouldn't be the last. She did love Lindsey but as a sister not a lover.

She was mad as hell that Sandi would blow her cover in Lawndale. The twins were accosted by the various vultures of media by Monday afternoon as they were leaving school. There was now a wonderful sound bite of Bianca telling two separate reporters to go fuck themselves. It was all over the web within an hour. Quinn's mom was mortified; Aunt Amy sent her a card congratulating her on raising such an independent child. Quinn was mostly worried about how long it would take the media to figure out that Chloe Francesca and Bianca Lucinder Morgendorffer formerly Snow just also happen to be Lucinder and Francesca Powers the suppose biological daughters of writer extraordinaire Melody Powers.

(To make it harder for people to realize that she was Melody Powers, Quinn decided to make Melody a full decade older than her. Her publisher believed it was a brilliant idea because most people wouldn't believe a twenty-something had enough life experience to write the type of stories that she did. The unintentional consequence of that was everybody thought that she was a cougar when she married Jonathan Starr, but that was OK.)

Quinn tried very hard to keep her daughters out of the public spotlight after Lindsey died. That was the main reason she wrote under a pseudonym and created a completely different background for Melody. In the divorce, she paid Jonathan an extra two million to keep quiet about her real identity. Once she changed her girls' names and moved to another neighborhood in Malibu, the press lost sight of Lindsey's orphans. She was furious that, thanks to Sandi, her children's perfectly normal lives were falling apart, complete with being stalked by the media.

Knowing her children as well as she did, she knew that they weren't not telling her everything that was going on, which is why she scheduled midweek coffee with Joey. True to their sheep like ways, Chloe was put on fashion club sabbatical and no one in the fashion club would speak to her, publicly anyway. The rest of the student body followed suit at first, leading to Chloe actually eating lunch with her sister, Madison, and Evan on Monday. The pariah status only lasted until the more self-absorbed members of LHS found out Chloe and Bianca were pop star royalty. According to Joey and later Monique, both girls had either been hiding out in Monique's office during lunch or scheduling therapy sessions at that time. Quinn was just thankful neither one of her children have tried to retaliate yet.

By Wednesday, Quinn's brilliant publicist had successfully gotten rid of the press and made Sandi look like a fool simultaneously, before anyone figured out she was Melody Powers. By Thursday ,the shallow masses of LHS were starting to leave the girls alone again. On Friday, Ashley broke fashion club party lines and was secretly text messaging Chloe, again despite what her mother said in private. Maybe there was hope for that girl.

Chloe really didn't have time to think about her popularity as Ted's clerical intern. She was too busy. You can't think about how fake your friends are when you're being forced to copy 200 page legal briefs or get a file for somebody who refuses to switch to digital storage.

Quinn also thought that spending time with Brooke was good for Chloe. Brooke's stories about all the stupid things she did in high school for the sake of being popular would convince anyone to run away from the shallow and conceited of the world. The other advantage of Chloe's new after school job was the press would not go anywhere near her mother's law firm. There was an incident a couple years ago when the firm had been working on a high profile case and her mother managed to scare off half the press by just being her.

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Stacy never called Quinn about the job offer. Quinn did talk to Charles several times about Bianca working at Feisty. He was impressed with Bianca’s skills and was happy to have her onboard. Bianca was just happy that her internship was paid, unlike her sister's, even if she wouldn't have time to hang out with Madison as much.

Charles also vented more of his frustrations involving Sandi forcing his wife to work almost 14 hour days. After Charles essentially begged her to convince Stacy about leaving, Quinn decided it was in her best interest to talk to Stacy in person. This led to an invitation to have dinner at the Ruttheimer-Rowe house Thursday where Quinn tried to convince Stacy to work for her.

"I can't leave Quinn." Stacy pleaded over a slice of cheesecake at a dinner that she showed up an hour late to because of Sandi. It was cheesecake of the low fat variety with extra fresh fruit but it was still tasty and the perfect complement to the whole-wheat pasta and roasted vegetable dish from earlier. Quinn was completely jealous that Stacy had a husband who knew how to cook. For somebody who used to work in the fast food industry, it was shocking for Quinn to know that her former husband didn't even know how to make toast or even a decent cup of coffee for that matter. Maybe that's why Jonathan was so interested in getting with her. Charles was currently hiding in the kitchen supposedly doing the dishes to give Quinn time to have this conversation alone.

"Yes you can. You're stronger than this. You stood up to her before, why can't you do it now? Sandi can't hurt you." Quinn said practically pleading with her. She was tempted to play the baby card but decided not to.

"You can't say that after what she did to you this week. She used her TV show to spread vicious rumors about you and people believed her. You don't want to know what I heard about you at the grocery store last night. I know Sandi will do the exact same thing to me if I leave, especially to work with you. Alexandra told me all about what Sandi said to the other fashion club parents. Chloe must be crushed." Stacy said in her normal babbling way almost on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Breathe, Stacy. Hyperventilating has to be bad for the baby." Quinn said as she tried to calm down the woman. "As for Chloe's friends leaving her because of the lies, if they do that, than they were never actually her friends to begin with. She knows that and wants nothing to do with people like that. She saw firsthand what fake friends can do to a person." Quinn paused, thinking about all of Lindsey's 'friends' that fed her drug habit and rode her coattails.

"People like that are not really worth her time. Sandi can only hurt you if you let her and I'm not going to let her hurt me. I really don't care what people think about me. I got over that sometime in college when I saw firsthand that being popular/famous is just not worth it." Stacy's mouth opened in shock at that moment.

"You're surprised?" Quinn asked.

"You did pretend your sister was your cousin for most of high school because she wasn't popular enough for you." Stacy pointed out, reminding Quinn of who she used to be.

"We all do stupid things when we are teenagers. The person you were when we first met would not have given your current husband the time of day, let alone dated him. We are not our high school selves. I am much more upset about the press following my kids around then anything that Sandi can come up with. My publicist took care of the press and my lawyer is making Sandi as miserable as possible. Unfortunately, I can't talk about pending litigation." Quinn said with a smile.

Quinn had her lawyers on Sandi and the station within 5 minutes of her slanderous remarks. After growing up with a lawyer for a mother, Quinn knew firsthand how to use the law to her advantage. It probably had something to do with her mother reading law books to Quinn as bedtime stories as a child.

"I already know about the lawsuit. That's why I had to work late. Sandi was absolutely furious when she found out that you are suing her and the station for slander and defamation of character. I had to be there for the late afternoon meeting with the lawyers and the PR department to deal with the situation. The station is also being targeted by GLAAD and similar organizations for certain things Sandi said about you Monday." Apparently, anger got in the way of Sandi's better sense and she used certain words on camera that would obviously make her a target of the organization such as the d word or the F word. Actually she used both F words and the sensor was half asleep that day and didn't catch it.

"I'm surprise the FCC is not targeting her." Quinn mumbled under her breath. "I just wanted to issue the press release asking that my children be left alone. My mom was the one who suggested suing for slander and defamation of character. I just went along with it." Quinn said with another smile. She wished there was a camera around when Sandi was served.

"I'm sure things are a complete mess at the station right now. Half the office is probably faxing out their resume. No one would blame you for jumping ship." Quinn said trying to persuade her.

"They would probably throw me a party for getting the hell out of there." Stacy mumbled under her breath.

"So why won't you leave? This is a real job offer. I need help. I can't deal with the book, my father, and most importantly my children all at the same time. My publisher is driving me crazy with all their extreme demands. I can't even get my father to eat a Turkey burger unless I lie to him or Joey comes over. Charles showed me your resume. Even though you mostly worked with web site content, you still are an excellent proofreader. You took a ton of writing classes in college. You are also good with research and I need to make sure my next book is 'authentic', according to my new stupid editor. I know you can do that. You can also help with some of the other things, because if you can deal with Sandi, you can definitely convince my father to eat a piece of fruit now and then." Quinn said with a tiny laugh.

"I want to help but I can't." Stacy said quickly putting another piece of cheesecake in her mouth.

"Why?" Quinn said trying not to let out tears of frustration.

"Monday, I told Alexandra that I was leaving because of what her and her mother did to you and Chloe. I already had half my desk boxed up. I didn't even know all the details of what they did Saturday when I said that, but I knew I couldn't stay there after that. Alexandra fell down to her knees and started crying as she confessed everything.” For some reason, Stacy blushed at that. “She literally begged me to stay. She promised that if I stayed, she would talk to her father about me getting my old job back. Actually, she promised me that she would convince him to make me the head of the cyber journalism department. I could work from home for the first year away from Sandi." It was hard to imagine Alexis being repented about anything but Quinn could see it. Stacy was probably the only person who actually cared about the girl and she would probably do anything to keep Stacy there, including getting her away from Sandi. Than again, who knew how much Sandi had corrupted her by this point. Alexis probably knew how to manipulate anyone by now.

"Do you believe her?" Quinn asked knowing that Stacy would know the girl better than she did.

"I think she will try to keep her promise. There isn't anyone else around that actually cares about her. Her biological mother practically lives at Betty Ford and her father is too busy fucking girls who are young enough to be his daughter. I don't even want to talk about her relationship with Sandi, because we all know that Sandi only cares about Sandi and uses everyone for her own purposes. Sandi has screwed Alexandria's head up so much I don't know what she's doing half the time. She even changed her name. Unfortunately, Sandi still has her hand wrapped around Mr. Richardson's dick and he will do whatever the bitch wants." Stacy said bluntly. Quinn opened her mouth in shock, surprised to hear her high school friend talk like that.

"Stacy," Quinn said in shock.

"You know it's true. I'm not a researcher or the coffee girl. I'm a journalist, even if it involves a computer. I can't leave my dream behind right now. I will not retreat. I can't back down." Stacy said with more strength than Quinn expected to hear from her.

"I understand." Quinn said because it was the only thing she could say, even if she really didn't understand at all.

"Thank you for the offer and it's nice to know I have options." She could tell Stacy was being sincere when she said this. Maybe just knowing she had other options would help her be stronger with Sandi.

"My offer stands even if I find someone else, if I ever find someone else." Quinn said with a groan as she finished off the last of her cheesecake.

"I have a friend from college who needs a job. I told you about Kat. She was a creative writing major but she worked as an assistant for a divorce attorney Downtown, until she was downsized last month. Apparently, people don't get divorced when the economy is this bad." Quinn wanted to laugh at that because that certainly wasn't the case with her life. "She tried to temp for Charles but they don't get along at all."

"You want me to hire your friend?" She asked.

"Could you at least give her an interview? There are not a lot of jobs in the area and I really don't want to lose my built in babysitter to DC." Considering the hours that Stacy worked, she probably needed that more than anything else, even if Charles could work from home.

"Fine, bring her by tomorrow. She can't be any worse than some of the other people I have seen." Quinn said with a sigh.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Stacy said over and over again.

That promise led to the only good thing that happened that week. Quinn remembered hearing about Kat from Stacy's story of how her and Charles finally got together the night Tiffany died. Cat lived in Lawndale her entire life but went to Fielding Prep because her mother worked there as an English teacher. She was extremely outspoken but brilliant with the written word. After reading a few examples of her work, Quinn was half-tempted to send some of the stuff to some of her friends at other publishing houses. She was too mad at her own publisher to drop something this good in their laps. Vengeance would be hers.

The grammar in Kat's writing was meticulous. This was something Quinn considered necessary for anybody who worked with her. Quinn could write, but could not proofread to save her life. Her storytelling abilities were homed by years of lying to her parents and coming up with excuses for shopping. However, she had grammar issues. If you ever read one of her rough drafts, you would wonder how she got published in the first place. It probably had something to do with the fact she did not actually pay attention in most of her English classes until junior year and missed most of the rules. At 13, Quinn never considered that she would grow up to have a job that required her to know the proper way to use a semi colon or when to use whom over who. Whomever Quinn hired, definitely needed to know the rules of grammar. Quinn was too busy writing her story to care about that sort of thing. She could hire someone to do that.

Another plus was that Kat had a minor in history, which would help with the research problem. The number one reason why Quinn hired Stacy's friend was she was able to get Jake to eat his lunch without complaining. That in and of itself was a reason to hire her.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Considering the absolutely horrible week she barely survived, Quinn was really looking forward to doing grown-up things. Actually, she was happy to take part in any activity that didn't involve Sandi trying to fuck with her life, even if that activity was just a coffee date with her daughter's therapist. Not that it was a date because it wasn't a date, contrary to what everyone else argued. It was just coffee and coffee was not a euphemism for sex in this case. (She really should never have allowed her own children to read one of her books that was a bit more adult in nature.)

David was treating both of her daughters and considering the week those two girls have had therapy was necessary. It would be completely unethical to date her daughters' doctor. Not to mention that the idiot turned her down when she was a teenager and she wasn't going to go there again even if he had a really good reason. It meant nothing that she spent two hours choosing the perfect outfit the day before. She just didn't want to come off as overly pretentious or some wealthy socialite.

Unfortunately, neither her daughters nor Lindsey believed her along with pretty much everyone else. Let's just say she was happy Jane was too busy with her gallery show this weekend to make life miserable by coming down to visit under the guise of working on the graphic novel. Because neither her children nor her best friend believed her regarding her coffee time with David, the three along with Madison were currently sitting a few tables away trying to be unnoticeable. Quinn was already laughing on the inside as soon as she noticed that they were there.

Really, it was a Starbucks. Even if it was a bigger Starbucks, it was still extremely noticeable. At least they were not being followed by the press vultures. David realized that they had company the moment they walked in the door. She should've just been thankful that Jake wasn't there too. Her brand new assistant, who started working immediately, was keeping Jake occupied. Kat was currently interviewing Jake about his experiences at Altamont for a personal project she was working on. Apparently, Kat had no trouble whatsoever dealing with an angry Jake rant. This was another thing that made her the perfect assistant. Quinn's stress level was already dropping a little, at least it was until she saw her children stalking her on a da—casual get together with a friend.

"I thought you were going to leave the kids at home?" David asked as he pointed to her twins hiding behind newspapers. Really, could they be any more conspicuous? Her children didn't read newspapers unless it was with the assistance of an electronic device.

"So did I," Quinn said with visible frustration. "I told you they would follow us. I just didn't expect them to be waiting here but I should have. I knew I shouldn't have told Bianca and Chloe where we were going but I wanted to make sure they could get a hold of me in case there was an emergency. You know my children. I wouldn't put it past them to get arrested again. We should just be happy that the press is not here or my father for that matter." Quinn said with an unbelievably nervous laugh. She had the sudden urge to run and hide again.

Chloe getting arrested seemed highly probable after everything that has happened. After this past week, she was expecting her to knock out Alexis the next time they ran into each other. There was just too much tension there. Maybe, it was a good thing that they were sitting in the corner where she could keep an eye on her children, even if she wanted to spend time with David alone. Not really alone, but in a public setting surrounded by lots of people that were not related to her by adoption. Honestly, she wanted to get to know the person treating her children better. She did not have a certain inappropriate sex dream about a certain psychologist the night before. (She personally blamed having to work on the film adaptation of her first novel recently, not some deep-seated desire to actually sleep with her daughters' psychologist.)

"I understand. You were being a good mom and they're being extremely over protective children." David said just low enough for only her to hear as they approached the counter. She needed coffee quickly to deal with this.

"I know. They probably would have hacked into my GPS again any way. They have always been protective of me, even before I was actually their mom. I can't blame them for being that way after what happened with Jonathan and their biological mom. They never liked him but I was too in love to take their concerns as seriously as I should have. I just thought they were jealous and worried that I wouldn't have enough time for the two anymore. I guess I should have listened. I was just being foolish." Quinn replied in a whisper.

"You were not being foolish." David said in reassurance. "A lot of single moms have that issue. It wasn't your fault."

"It doesn't matter. You can't change the past. I don't think that's going to be a problem this time around. My kids love you. Not that I'm trying to date you. We're just friends or will be eventually." Quinn said practically babbling as she wished the line would hurry up and move.

"Yeah right." Quinn heard multiple people say from the table in the corner containing her two daughters, her best friend and her daughter's best friend. Apparently, she and David were talking loud enough to have their private conversation overheard. That comment pissed her off.

"Really, can I go get coffee by myself?" Quinn asked the table.  
"Not when a hot guy is involved." Madison replied. David almost blushed and Quinn was looking for a table to hide under. Did they have to do this to her?

"I expect this from my children but not you Lindy. I expect better." Quinn said with a hurt expression. "I didn't even think you were going to be in town this weekend."

"I was in the area for a job. I decided to take a coffee break with my favorite nieces." Her so-called best friend responded nonchalantly.

"What job? I thought you were here to give Dr. Mike a BJ." Chloe said in a way that made Lindy uncomfortable and Quinn wanted to laugh out loud.

"You're back with Michael now?" Quinn asked knowing that the two were supposedly 'friends with benefits'. Quinn knew firsthand that concept only worked well in cheesy romance novels.

"Let's give your mom some privacy. Pizza? My treat." Lindy replied trying to avoid Quinn's question.

"That's okay. We'd rather torture mom." Bianca said with a wicked smirk.

"With an attitude like that, your internship at Feisty can become unpaid. Leave now." Quinn threatened.

"Actually ,we will leave. How about lunch? I know a few restaurants that make good salads." David said, already pulling her to the door.

"Forget the salad, I feel like stress eating. I need french fries." Quinn said allowing him to lead her out the door.

"I would say that's a bad way to deal with your emotions but I'm just happy to see that you eat something other than fancy coffee drinks." David said with a smile. Unfortunately, she could tell that the twins were scurrying to catch up. Lindy was trying to be a good friend by preventing the twins from following her but her attempts were futile.

"We will take your car because I'm pretty sure that a certain genius child of mine has hacked into the GPS."

"That won't help because we have your cell phone." Bianca answered sarcastically.

"If you two don't want to end up working for Eric and Grandma Helen until graduation for free, I suggest you do not follow me on this date." Quinn said icily as she tried to get into David's car. Unfortunately, the doors were locked ruining her exit.

"I thought you said it was not a date?" Chloe asked in complete false innocence. Quinn was 30 seconds from screaming, fortunately, for her David remotely unlocked the door before she could have a public melt down.

"If you don't want me to have Principle Lane call you to my office for sessions over the PA system for the rest of the school year, I suggest you leave for pizza with your mom's friend right now." Apparently, the threat of public humiliation worked really well and the girls were already making their way to Lindy's car.

"Works every time." David said as he slid into the seat next to her placing his hand over hers. "Are you okay?" David asked as he noticed her shaking.

"Not really. It's been a really long week complete with media scrutiny and overly invasive children. Can I get those French fries now?"

"Sure, I will even throw in an orange soda." David said pulling out of the parking lot.

"As long as its diet." Quinn replied slightly upset that he let go of her hand.


	8. This Is Not a Date, Maybe? Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thank you to GothicChevy who reviewed this chapter.

It was more than an hour later after her dramatic escape from the Main Street Starbucks, that she and David pulled into his driveway. David lived in the very upscale suburb of Oakdale hills in a nice house that bordered on being a small mansion. His home was extremely modern in architecture without being pretentious. High school Quinn, would have given him extra points for the house and the car. Adult Quinn, really didn't care. As long as his underwear wasn't sitting in the middle of the living room, she would be happy to date a guy who lived in the basement. Not that she wanted to date David, because she didn't.

Also, High school Quinn would have been freaked out by the fact that David took her to a greasy chain hamburger joint, even if it was a good chain restaurant. Adult Quinn was pleasantly surprised David brought her to Five Chicks' #1 because she loved their French fries and she finally talked the rest of the owners into adding fresh fruit to their simple menu.

"You're not freaking out that I took you to a burger joint?" David asked her as they walked into the restaurant that had stacks of potatoes in the dining area.

"I asked for French fries and nobody has better fries." Quinn said with a smile.

"You're not expecting Chez Pierre?" He asked sarcastically. Quinn practically laughed at his question. She couldn't believe she thought that place was so great in high school.

"I have no idea if they even had French fries on the menu because that was not something I would have ordered back then but that place is the worst French restaurant I have ever eaten at. I have been in a lot of French Restaurants, so I would know. Actually, I lived in Paris for a few months. I would rather have good food than fancy tablecloths and snooty waiters." Quinn replied as she looked at the menu. Apparently, the owners are also testing out salads in their flagship location. They forgot to tell her that.

"You used to live in Paris?" David asked still slightly surprised.

"Just for one summer during college when Lindsey decided that being in another country would help her recovery." Quinn did not go into details because David probably knew more about Lindsey Snow than he wanted to.

"Did it help?" David asked and Quinn wasn't sure how to respond. Thinking about Lindsey always hurt. Fortunately, she didn't have to because she was already being hugged by Sarah, one of the owners.

"What are you doing here?" Quinn asked the older woman. Sarah Graves was one of the five sisters who started the restaurant nearly 30 years ago.

"Just because your daddy made me a very rich lady doesn't mean I still don't come into work every once in awhile. I have to make sure that my number one store is still up to my standards. What are you doing here? Your dad didn't say anything about you coming to visit until summer, last time I talked to him." Sarah said in her usual booming way. Apparently, she didn't watch Sandy's excuse for morning television.

"Is that before or after the heart attack?" Given Sarah's shocked expression, she was going to go with before the heart attack. Even though Quinn thought it was crazy, her father's associates decided it was best not to let the clients know everything that happened. They knew that Jake was out on medical leave but not how bad the situation really was. Fortunately, the press did not pick up on it. Quinn spent the next few minutes explaining everything to his father's client.

Her father was the visionary who took the tiny Oakdale hamburger joint from one restaurant with good burgers on the verge of going under to 70 restaurants in less than nine years. Post divorce, her father threw himself into his job and turned Jake Morgendorffer Consulting into a multimillion dollar business. Maybe becoming a workaholic was what caused the second heart attack. Sarah apparently thought the same thing.

"I told him to slow down and not eat so much of our products. We have only recently added stuff to the menu that my cardiologist will let me eat, so I understand the absence." Sarah joked. "That does explain why he has not been by lately and I'm being forced to work with someone else. Your father is usually more hands on with the clients that have been around awhile. I'm so sorry sweetie. If there's anything I can do, just let me know." Quinn knew the offer was genuine as Sarah squeezed her hand.

"He's getting better. He is driving everybody crazy working from the house. I still can't pry his blackberry from his hands." She couldn't help but chuckle at that. He was starting to become as bad as her mother.

"I'm not surprised. I'm glad you were able to move back in and help take care of him. I had to take care of my mother years ago after her stroke. I know it's not easy." Sarah said with a look of sympathy.

"You're right about that. I don't know how many times I have to remind myself that I'm doing this because I love my father. Although, I wish I could get him to stop trying to sneak out to Cluster Burger. Maybe, I should just be happy that he's walking to Cluster Burger." Sarah made a face of disgust at that. She was pretty sure she almost saw David smiling.

"Nasty stuff. At least we have a lean ground beef burger here. If things get too rough, feel free to stop by corporate. I always value your opinion. You should be more hands-on now that you are here. We are currently testing out salmon burgers and our own veggie burger recipe." That made Quinn happy. If it came in a wrapping paper from this place, her dad would eat it no questions asked, even if it contained tofu.

"I'm so bringing dad in for that." Quinn said smiling.

"Just let me know when you're available. I will let you get back to your date." With that, Sarah was gone before Quinn could correct her. (Quinn refused to admit she had no desire to correct her.)

"You know the owner?" David asked not saying anything about someone else assuming this was a date.

"She is one of my dad's clients." Quinn said without mentioning the fact that she now had a 30% stake in the burger joint. She wanted David to think she was a normal person. Unfortunately, that came out when David tried to pay. He looked a little surprised but didn't say anything in the restaurant or on the walk back to the car with their bags filled with greasy fries, the extra lean hamburgers, and a fruit cup for her. (Just because she would eat fried food now didn't mean that she completely forsaken healthy eating.) The 10 minute drive to David's house was spent discussing her battles with her father over everything. It was actually good to be able to let go for once. Of course, maybe he didn't say anything about her lofty investment portfolio because he was taking her to his little mansion.

"I see being a high school guidance counselor pays well." Quinn remarked as she snuck French fries from the bag. Five Chicks' French fries were too good to wait. Okay; maybe she was a little nervous and that's why she was resorting to junk food. Real dating always made her nervous. Not that this was a date, because, again, it wasn't.

"I do okay, even if I'm not a fast food heiress." David joked as he cut off the car. "If I was in this for the money, I sure as hell wouldn't be working at a high school. The house was a gift from my overly pretentious, extremely wealthy grandmother for deciding to do something worthwhile with my life instead of being completely dependent on the family fortune." She was surprised to hear that. She didn't know that he came from a wealthy family. Sure, back when they first met he always wore very nice clothing, even if it was not in style, but he was working as a tutor to make extra money. Of course, maybe he just did the job for the sheer enjoyment of it. Bianca was now working as a paid intern at Feisty because her daughter didn't believe in living off her trust fund. Jane referred to Quinn as being Warren Buffett rich and the multimillionaire next door. Quinn never flaunted that she had money and her children were taught to do the same thing. Quinn really shouldn't have been surprised that other people did the same. Tom Sloane was a public school English teacher for god's sake.

"Your grandmother has good taste. Also, I'm not a fast food heiress. I just invested in the company so they would open a restaurant in Malibu." Quinn said honestly. David just laughed.

"That doesn't surprise me. Besides, if I was really looking for money, I could always sue this writer for using me as the model for a character in her book without asking for my permission." David said in a monotone that would make Daria proud. That worried Quinn for a moment.

"I hope that is not the point of this. If so, I need to call my lawyer." Quinn said getting out of the car hoping that it wouldn't come to that. After grilling her multiple times about why she returned to the house so late Saturday, her mom suggested that David was only interested in spending time with her because of a potential lawsuit. She blamed Chloe for telling her mom exactly who David was in an effort to avert attention from her regarding her arrest. For some reason, until that moment her mom was the only person in the family who didn't know that the male protagonist in Tudor for the Heart was based on David.

"Not really." David said as they walked up his front stairs. "I'm actually flattered in a way. My ex wanted to try out the scenario on page 242 of the unedited version of the book." Quinn blushed because she remembered exactly what was on that page. It was so steamy that the passage was not in the version that her daughter was currently reading in English now. (She personally believed that Tom was only teaching that book this semester because she agreed to stop by class in the guise of Miss Powers to embarrass the hell out of her kids. Actually, that would be the perfect revenge for what they did at Starbucks today.)

"You really did read the entire book?" She asked nervously resisting the urge to run out into the street and get a cab.

"Yes, but unlike certain people, I know that you didn't just write this down from personal experiences. You are really creative." David said as they walked inside. She wondered if that last part was sarcastic.

"I'm glad one of us thinks so." Quinn muttered as she followed behind him. "Where do you want to eat?"

"The living room is fine." He replied as he started turning on the lights.

"You doubt your own creativity?" David asked as she took a seat on his black couch and started laying out the food on the coffee table.

"I doubt a lot of things about myself. Many of my stories are based on my own experiences. Sure the graphic bits were completely from my imagination in that particular story but that was more of me writing down my own fantasies than anything else." As soon as Quinn realized what she really said, she shoved three French fries in her mouth. She was personally hoping to choke and lose consciousness; therefore, being able to get out of this. That didn't happen.

"Please don't read anything into that." She mumbled after swallowing.

"Not going to." He said giving her a strange look as he sat down next to her.

"I still don't believe you. I don't think Ashley is you. I mean parts of her are similar to the high school you, down to her being a member of what you refer to as the grand fashion cult of Lee High and the serial dating because she's afraid of intimacy. However, there are a lot of differences." David said just as he grabbed his burger.

"Like what?" Quinn asked enjoying the opportunity to really discuss her book with someone. Sometimes she snuck on her fan message boards but that was different. David was not some fan boy, he was someone that she valued the opinion of.

"I seriously doubt you spent hours crying in your bedroom after I said no." She did nothing like that, she just ate an entire container of regular ice cream by herself before going to her sister for guidance.

"Of course, not." Quinn said just a little too hasty.

"Obviously, there is the fact that Ashley looks nothing like you even, if you made Devon look almost exactly like me, if the cover work is any indication." Jane was the one to blame for that but she did give Devon some similar features, subconsciously of course.

"In the story, Ashley is very blond and about 5 inches taller than you. This story takes place in a New York City suburb instead of a Baltimore/DC suburb. Ashley is the older sister to twin brothers. Also, her mom doesn't have her cell phone surgically attached to her ear." She couldn't help but giggle. "Does your mom still do that?" David asked.

"She wrote a letter of thanks to the guy who invented wireless headsets. Now she can still talk on her cell phone when she has to try cases in DC. She carries two blackberries and an iPhone everywhere she goes." Quinn said laughing ,getting comfortable in David's presence.

"You're right about that, only because Ashley's mother abandoned her and her brothers to have a steamy love affair with her boss. Ashley's father was the workaholic." David gave her a funny look at that.

"Okay, maybe I was just a little mad at my mother for marrying Eric at the time I was working on that part of this story." That was the first time Quinn ever told anyone about that.

"Still, it was something you came up with. It was a way for you to work through something. You used your pain and turned it into something good. Since, I saw you eating all the tim,e even if it was just lettuce and carrot sticks in the high school days, I don't think you had anorexia either." High school Quinn was absolutely flattered that David paid enough attention to her that he remembered her eating habits. The Quinn that was a mother of two teenagers and an accomplished writer was flattered that someone remembered the details of one of her books so well.

"I started writing that story in high school when my parents were in the middle of the divorce; that was when I developed the character of Ashley's mom. It was just a short story then. The final version that went to the publisher, wasn't written until around the time Tiffany died. I don't know if you remember her but I think you survived exactly one session. She was obsessed with her appearance, talked really slow, but she was a sweet person underneath it all. She died during my sophomore year of complications of anorexia." Even years later, it still hurt to think about Tiffany even if she didn't feel the same type of blame that Stacy felt. David picked up on this and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"This was your way of dealing with Tiffany's death? Just like making Ashley's mom disappear was your way of dealing with your anger regarding your mom leaving your family and remarrying?" He asked these things as he continued holding onto her hand. Okay, now she understood why he was the first therapist to ever get anywhere with Bianca. He was good. Quinn was purposely ignoring the fact that her heart was fluttering because they were still holding hands.

"Writing has always been my way of dealing with a lot of things over the years. I have been a storyteller for a while. You should have heard some of the elaborate things I came up with to explain who Daria was when I refused to admit that she was my sister. I started putting that stuff down on paper when Daria went to college and my parents' marriage went to hell in front of me. I just started writing down about the life I wished I had." Quinn wondered how many people knew the real story about how she started writing.

"Are you doing that now?" David asked as if he already knew the answer.

"Not really." Quinn denied. David just gave her a look that told Quinn he did not believe her at all.

"It's true. I am working on a few stories right now. One is a graphic novel that my publisher hates because it involves a love story. I'm reworking the plot right now even though I don't know what to change it to." She barely avoided a rant about how much she despised her publishing company right then but she didn't want to scare David away by channeling her inner Jake.

"I am also finishing a novel about a successful executive reminiscing about the one that got away when her current marriage falls apart after she discovers her husband cheating on her. A lot of it takes place in the 1960s. The twist is at the end of this story you find out that the one that got away was her first husband who she divorced for her current husband and her shiny office." There was a bit of bitterness in her voice as she told him this. Quinn was not entirely sure where it came from.

"So you're writing the story of your parents' marriage and subsequent divorce? Can I assume your mother is having problems with her second husband?" David asked, which completely shocked her. She wanted to ask him how he knew so much about her life, than she remembered that he had two wonderful sources in her two daughters.

"Not at all," Quinn said defensively even if it was a lie. "The female protagonist is more of the Martha Stewart type executive and as you know, my mother is a legal shark. Although, I did talk to both my parents to get background information about the period, for the sake of authenticity. Not that my publisher noticed that." Quinn mumbled that part before she went off just a little.   
"It's not my fault that the only thing my editor knows about that time period comes from watching reruns of the Andy Griffith show. They are also mad about the lack of happy ending. I found out that love does not always have a happy ending and I think it's time my readers do as well." Quinn quickly pushed three more French fries into her mouth out of pure nervousness.

"You need to slow down. I'm starting to reassess the eating disorder thing. Have your fruit cup." David said taking the bowl of fresh fruit out of the bag and putting it in Quinn's hands.

"Sorry, I am just frustrated. People like my editor and my moronic stepfather are part of the reason why I don't believe I'm a brilliant writer but rather someone who just got lucky. I am a pretty person who just happened to know all the right people. Even my own grandmother refered to my work as 'housewife pornography'. Maybe they're right." Quinn said not looking at David as she played with the cap of her water.

"I doubt they would be teaching your stories at schools across the country if they were just 'housewife pornography'. There is nothing wrong with writing about what you know. You are probably a better writer because of it. Connections and a pretty face only get you so far, you went the rest of the way on your own." She wanted to believe him but instead she just shrugged.

"I'm surprised to see this side of you. You've always seemed too confident of a person to believe stuff like that." David remarked. "Yet from our conversations, I can tell that you doubt your own self-worth."

"I guess I was a brilliant performer back then." She said with a sigh. "I've always been good at keeping up appearances. I will let you in on a little secret, despite the best high school wardrobe I could get away with and every boy in school falling all over me, I didn't like myself very much. Sometimes, I still don't." The last part was mumbled without making eye contact.

"So that confident and bouncy person from back then was just a mask?" He asked poignantly. It looked like he was going to ask something else but he didn't.

"Pretty much. I mean two of my main 'suitors' were so deep in the closet they wrote homophobic essays regarding the homoerotic subtext of Romeo and Juliet because of their own self-loathing." Daria said that was the main reason why she wasn't surprised about a certain redhead coming out.

"Things like that are part of the reason why I work in a high school. Every semester I have one or two students coming to my office because they hate their selves for being not heterosexual or not living up to some other person's ridiculous expectations thrown on her/him." David said darkly.

"I think Mr. and Mr. White could have use you back then." Quinn said with a laugh. "We were all more concerned with appearance more than anything else. We wanted everybody to like us to the point that we did not even like ourselves. I wish I was more like my sister back then." Quinn said with a pain of regret. Some of that was related to the not so nice things she said to her sister last Sunday. She hasn't bothered yet to apologize because she was still angry.

"How so?" David asked as he took a drink of his bottle of water. Quinn was 95% sure David was in psychologist mode, but she couldn't prove it. Quinn was just happy to be participating in a grownup conversation that did not revolve around her children, getting her father to follow doctors' orders, or Sandi Richardson being Sandi.

"She never gives a fuck about how other people saw her. It was more important that she liked herself then if anyone else did. I was always more concerned with how everyone saw me and it made me miserable."

"You think you're like that?" Skepticism was dripping from every word with one eyebrow raised as if he was questioning her. "I doubt that considering how well you are taking the recent slander in the press. If you really cared that much about how people saw the fabulous Quinn, you would be at least crying right now."

"High school has been over for a decade. I have moved away from high school Quinn. We are not the same person. I had this professor in college that said for all intents and purposes the person you were 10 years ago no longer exists. You are who you are now."

"Who is Quinn at 28?" David asked. Quinn didn't want to answer that question mostly because she wasn't sure anymore. Last year she had the answer, not now. Too much had changed recently between the divorce and moving across the country.

"I'm still 27 for another month." Quinn replied using humor to avoid the question that she did not want to answer. She couldn't believe it was still just March. How could so much change so quickly?

"Just answer the question Quinn." David demanded with kindness.

"Do you have a Cabernet Sauvignon? I think I'm going to need alcohol for this conversation." Within seconds David was up from the couch and headed straight for the bar. He actually had a wine fridge underneath.

"I can't believe you know the type of wine for a cheeseburger." David said as he poured two glasses.

"I was a celebrity assistant. We know everything." Quinn said before David return.

"Now that you have the perfect wine to go with your burger, answer my question." David demanded as Quinn drank half the glass.

"Fine, but only because you gave me alcohol. I am a twenty seven year old single mother of two teenagers, who I love more than anything, even if the prospect of becoming a mom that soon scared the hell out on me. I still love them, even after today's stunt. I like working from home because I get to spend more time with my children, than my mom ever did with me." She paused for a moment for more wine, giving David just enough time to ask a question.

"Why do Chloe and Bianca refer to you as their mother? Most children I've met in similar situations don't do that." She is not surprise he asked her this. She got that question a lot from Eric and her grandmother. Although in Eric's case, it's probably mostly triggered by the fact that she refused to call him dad.

"Legally, I am their mother. We even have the same last name now. We are a perfectly normal family. That's what Lindsey wanted." Quinn said playing with the edge of her wine glass, reluctant to say more. David, picked up on this and quickly changed the subject.

"Are you only a writer because the hours are good?" Quinn laughed at that.

"My hours are never that great during deadline time. There is something to be said for a job that I can do from my couch in a bathrobe or at Starbucks with my laptop. I like what I do but I hate my boss. I'm upset that they sold the publishing company without notifying me. I don't like having an editor that makes me feel like I'm writing my very first book. They're not that happy about me moving to the other side of the country, mostly because they can't watch me as closely." She paused shortly for another drink of wine and to take a bite of her burger.

"How do you feel about the move?" She thought about David's question as she chewed.

"I'm not that upset about moving from Malibu to help take care of my father because I realized that almost all my real friends live here." She said honestly.

"You don't mean that?" David almost sounded shock.

"Oh yes, I do. The people I hung out with in Malibu and LA make Sandi seem like a sincere person. The same goes for the friends that Bianca and Chloe had. They were all overly fake and pretentious and wanted to be seen with Melody Powers." Again, there was this bitterness in Quinn's voice.

"Those were not your friends." David started. "Those were Melody's friends. They didn't know you, just the character you played." David said honestly. "We're going to have to talk about your secret identity/other personality later." There was a certain look in his eyes that told her he was looking forward to psychoanalyzing that particular part of her life. She wasn't quite ready to talk about Melody.

"Not now." There is only so much therapy Quinn could handle in one night and she was approaching her limit.

"Fair enough. How have your experiences over the last decade influenced the person that you are now?" She took a moment to think about it.

"I've been thinking a lot about that after I ran into Stacy last week. Before I met you, I was a stuck up little nightmare. All I cared about was looking good, being popular, and becoming the greatest supermodel ever." You could actually hear the disgust in her voice as she talked about high school Quinn.

"Nice to know you had goals." David joked but Quinn was not amused.

"Then I met this guy and he made me realize that I didn't have to pretend to be stupid even if you—he thought I lacked a certain amount of depth." There was that bitterness in her words again. So she was still a little angry about that.

"I didn't mean it." He blurted out quickly with sincerity in his eyes.

"This is my story and yes, you did." She spat back just as fast. "It's okay, because it was true at the time. The words were like mirror. I really saw myself for the first time and I didn't like who I saw. That's when I began to change. I started to pay attention in school and do my assignments. I started to make real friends instead of followers. That's when I met Lindy." She smirked to herself remembering the first time they went out together.

"She was the woman with the girls at the coffee place?" David asked her.

"Yes. She has been my best friend for the last 11 years. We met after my mom made me get a real job because of my little spending problem. I ended up as a hostess at one of the more posh restaurants in town." She purposely didn't mention the name due to an incident that happened during her first week where David and his then girlfriend walked in. She was afraid to talk to him, so she hid out in the bathroom for 10 minutes and sat everyone else on the other side of the restaurant for the next hour.

"Anyway, she was the one who taught me that once you get out of high school people don't care about the labels you wear or who you're dating. Granted everybody hated my brother-in-law's group, but so does my brother-in-law. The things people do for tuition money." Quinn said with a nervous laugh.

"A lot of people pretend to hate your brother in law's group. I have a feeling there's more to this story than that." David prompted.

"Isn't there always? It was a great experience until Lindy was fired for drinking at work. I was the one who convinced her that she actually had a problem. She's been mostly sober for the last 11 years. The one lapse was during my divorce pity party where she drank one regular Margarita. I'm not sure if that counts because my assistant accidentally mixed up the drinks." Not that Quinn knew what happened because she was completely sloshed.

"It doesn't count." David said quickly.

"She was being a good friend. We've been through a lot together from rehab to divorce." She explained before going into a few more anecdotes

"What about after high school?" David is kind enough to refill her wine glass at this point in the interrogation. She told him everything about moving to California and becoming Lindsey Snow's assistant including instantly falling in love with her two daughters. It was probably the wine talking but she even told him about Lindsay's very special birthday gift. He even got her to talk about her least favorite things: her divorce, Lindsay's death, Tiffany's death, and her father's heart attack. He even sat through a very colorful rant about her sister.

"She's not the only one who has a life. Sometimes, I think she expects me to take care of dad by myself because I'm the one who is divorced with children. I'm the one who's a stay-at-home mom, even if my career is just as important as hers. It's okay for me to completely uproot my entire life but it is not okay for her to rearrange a few meetings. She said she would help, but the moment she can come up with an excuse to get out of it she does." By this point, Quinn was furious and all the French fries were gone. They had also managed to work their way through 2/3 of the bottle of wine. She was so going to have to call a cab which was probably a good idea considering her car was still on Main Street.

"Did you tell your sister any of this?" David asked as he poured himself more wine.

"A little, but I think there was more cursing involved." Quinn said taking another drink. "I think this therapy session has gone on long enough."

"This isn't therapy. This is two friends talking over cheeseburgers. I usually don't give my patients alcohol." He quipped.

"Good to know." Quinn said putting her glass on the table. "If this was really just a conversation between friends wouldn't it go both ways? You just spent the best part of the afternoon listening to me complaining about my mother who treats me like a two year old, my children who are trying to set me up with their therapists, and my father who drives me just a little bit crazy. Yet, during my rants you never mentioned anything about your life except that apparently your ex-girlfriend was a fan and your grandmother was well off. Who is David at 32?"

"Actually, I'm 31. My birthday is next month just like yours." He replied avoiding her question

"Answer my question, who are you now? Do you have parents that have expectations you can never live up to you? I'm sure you have one sibling that you absolutely despised, if you really are Joey's friend Dave that he tried to set me up with." He actually laughed at that before getting serious.

"So you know about me being left at the altar?" David asked pouring a little more wine into her glass.

"I think everyone in Lawndale County knows about that." Quinn remarked.

"My fiancé did not leave me for my brother, she left me for my half-brother from my father's first marriage to a woman of his station. Jonathan is nearly 7 years older than me and a complete spoiled brat. Apparently, he was screwing my fiancée through our entire three year relationship." There was definitely bitterness there but he accepted the situation a lot better than she did when she went through something similar.

"I am starting to believe that all guys named Jonathan are complete bastards." Quinn joked.

"Part of me would agree with you but there's no scientific proof for such a conclusion." David said snidely.

"At lease you found out she really didn't care about you before the wedding. It has to be a lot better than your teenage daughter coming to you in tears because she caught your husband having sex was someone else." A tear rolled down Quinn's cheek as she remembered once again. At the same time, she felt David wiped the tear away with his fingers. She could feel the warmth radiate from his caress. She felt warm all over from just one touch.

"It was not as traumatic but it still hurt." David said with real honesty.

"It always hurts." Quinn remarked looking at her glass.

"I did feel better after my grandmother cut him off." They were both smiling at that.

"I hope literally. That is what I wanted to do to my Jonathan but I settled for lighting all his things on fire." He gave her a concerned look at that.

"Don't worry, it was on the beach. So what was your parents’ reaction to your Jonathan being a bastard?" She said quickly changing the subject to something less painful.

"They didn't have a reaction but that was mostly because they were dead." He responded without eye contact. So much for that idea.

"I'm sorry." Quinn said not knowing how to really respond.

"It's okay. It's been almost 20 years. I was 12. There was a car accident. Hit and run by someone in a white van." David didn't say anything else, instead he just took a drink from his glass.

"So that's why you're probably the first therapist that has lasted more than one Session. Unlike everyone else, you do understand what she's going through." Quinn wondered out loud.

Quinn sat there finishing her wine as David told her the story of his childhood. Jonathan was supposed to take care of David after his parents died but instead the responsibility went to David's aunt, Natalie. She was the type of person who didn't believe in being rich and spoiled. That was mostly because she never was either of those things. She had a simple house in Oakdale hills. Although, he used his trust fund to pay for tuition, David felt wrong about using it for anything else.

"I think that's enough sharing for one day. I should probably call a cab." Quinn said as she simultaneously got up from the couch and started searching for her cell phone despite not really wanting to.

"Or we can watch a movie?" David prompted.

"Movie works." Quinn said sitting back down on the couch. She really didn't want to leave anyway.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So apparently, movies and alcohol was not the best combination and she fell asleep at some point. Actually, they both did. She didn't wake up until almost six the next morning. Now an hour later, she was trying to sneak into her house. She was not going to go through the walk of shame when she did not get any sex out of it. (Not that she wanted to have sex with David, because really, she didn't.)

When she found her father asleep on the living room couch, she was really glad she stopped at Starbucks to get her car and pick up some coffee that would be her alibi.

"What was that?" Jake said as he woke up from the couch.

"Daddy, it's just me. I went out for coffee." Quinn said putting the coffee and a bag of pastries on the coffee table. She seriously hoped her father didn't realize that she was wearing the same clothes. She would have to get upstairs to the master bedroom before her kids saw her. They were always more observant.

"You're just getting in now? Can I have a Danish?" Jake asked with pleading eyes trying to grab the bag.

"We can split one, but you have to have a glass of fat free milk." She said giving in, hoping to get out of this conversation unscathed.

"Fine," at that point, Quinn walked over to the kitchen to pour a glass of milk.

"I didn't just get in. I took a taxi back late last night and I went to get my car and my regular dose of coffee this morning." Some of that was true but her father gave her his 'I know you're lying' look. She could easily fool her pre divorce father but it was a lot harder now. He actually noticed things now.

"You slept on the couch? You stayed up waiting for me?"

"For a while. Live from New York is nowhere near as funny as it used to be." He joked nervously. She was so busted. She felt 17, not 27.

"It's only good when Niki is the guest host." Quinn said sitting down next to her father on the couch.

"I know you're a grown up now. I was just worried. This was your first real date after the divorce." He said as he took a drink of the milk before making a face.

"It wasn't a date dad." Quinn said quickly but that made the inevitable freak out occur sooner.

"What! This guy thinks my daughter is only good for a quickie?" So much for that.

"Daddy! Think of your heart." Quinn interrupted mid rant.

"It wasn't like that. It's not a date because David is just a friend. We were originally just going to go out for coffee but the girls and Lindy were already there waiting for us. We picked up burgers and went back to his house. That reminds me, you have to call Sarah. She's angry that she wasn't told about the heart attack."

"I forgot about that." He said scratching his head.

"Anyway, we talked about a lot of different things. I drink a little wine and we watched a movie. I fell asleep watching a movie. Nothing happened." She exclaimed.

"I only believe you because I don't want to contemplate the alternative." He said shivering.

"I know." She said thinking about her own children.

"However, that does sound suspiciously like a date to me." Her father said enjoying his pastry

"If I wasn't fresh off of a divorce and he was not my daughters' guidance counselor, maybe it would have been a date. It's just too soon right now." She said honestly.

"Trust me, I get it. You find someone that you thought you are going to spend the rest of your life with and it didn't work out. It hurts a lot. You're afraid to try again because you're terrified you'll make the same mistake again." He just played with the wrapper on the coffee table as he said this.

"It's not like that. I seriously doubt I will find another Jonathan Starr." She joked.

"You're too afraid to look for anything good. After your mom left, I threw everything into my job. It was two years before Anthony talked me into going to singles night at the West Lounge." He said honestly before continuing. "I've had a few relationships after your mom left, nothing serious enough to really tell you about. I will never find what I had with Helen again. But if I don't look, then I'll never find anything else."

"Thanks daddy." She said hugging him not knowing what else to say.

"Are you sure nothing else happened last night 'cause if it did. I will cut off his…"

"Daddy!" She chastised, not that surprised as she pulled away.

"Sorry, I'm just overprotective." He said sheepishly.

"I get it. I'm just surprised you don't do this every time Evan comes over." She said half joking as she started upstairs.

"Why would I?" Her father asked in daze confusion.

"Because he's a teenage boy." She replied pointedly.

"I like Evan. He and I have a lot in common like being at the mercy of our over controlling fathers who hate us because we can't live up to their expectations. You know I used to be friends with Andrew Landon until last year. That ended after he kicked Evan out of the house. Andrew told me his real reason why and I couldn't be around someone like that." Her father seemed angry and sad at the same time as he spoke.

"You know, I would have been okay if the rumors about you and Lindsay were true. Not completely okay, because of her drug problem, but you know what I mean." The subject change seemed completely abrupt until Quinn put everything together.

"You know we really were just friends. Evan is gay?"

"Yes, but I didn't tell you."

"That explains why you are okay with him being upstairs with the door closed." She mumbled to herself.

"No matter what, I just want you and your sister to be happy. If this David person makes you happy, than I'm okay with that." With that Quinn was on her way upstairs where she just happened to be caught by her two teenage daughters. You could probably hear the happy screams at David's house when they found out she didn't come home last night. It's going to be a long week.


	9. Egypt is Lovely This Time of Year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: There is a time jump of about a month in this chapter but I wanted to speed things along to get to the good part.

During the next month, Quinn managed to get into some sort of routine. That mostly involved avoiding questions from her children about her spending the night at David's house (more than once) or any other time. She was almost 28 years old; she could have a platonic sleep over with just a friend. (It's not her fault that she's been so exhausted lately she falls asleep as soon as the DVD player is turned on.) She really did not spend that much time with David. She was finishing up her most recent book and that took most of her attention. Even if she was interested anyone (not necessarily David) she would not have time. Therefore, contrary to popular argument, she was not spending a lot of time with David because they were together. It's not her fault he has to call her due to twin related hijinks and fashion club feuding on a daily basis.

 

There was also a trip to Malibu during spring break to pack up the house to prepare it for becoming a rental property, as well as, spending too much time with her publisher. It took a personal visit to get them to stop driving her absolutely crazy with unnecessary rewrites and worthless critiques that helped no one. It took an hour just to convince the idiots in charge not to change the title. After weeks of going back with her editor, her next book If will hit the shelves the first week of June. Now they are going back and forth about the obligatory press tour. She was trying to convince her publisher to let her do remotes from DC to promote the book but that probably wasn't going to happen. She hated doing press because that meant spending more time as Melody. The best part about living in Lawndale was she rarely had a need to be her alter ego. Of course, later today she would get to practice being Melody again.

 

Some things were improving. Her father was doing better and working in the office a few hours a week. He was less likely to pounce on her male friends when they came over, if he was working on something. Overall, things are easier now that she did not have to stay focused on her father as much. It also helped that she now had an assistant who was absolutely fabulous.

 

Now that she was done _With If_ , it was time for Quinn to start on another book and she had no idea what to write. Quinn was stuck staring at her computer screen this warm April day, two days before her 28th birthday. The angry blank screens stared back at her mockingly. For the first time in her career, she had no idea what to do next. Normally, she had two dozen story ideas running through her head. Actually, she did have that many ideas running through her head. Nothing was good enough. She kept hearing the negative commentary of people like her publisher or Eric every time she typed something on screen.

She should have seen this coming. The graphic novel was currently on hold because she could not come up with a new plot line that her publisher would actually like after multiple rejections. Quinn was currently trying to repress the meeting from her time in Malibu. It was just bad. She was supposed to discuss a couple ideas with Jane when she came up this weekend for her birthday party but Quinn had nothing. Everything in her creative notebook was scratched out.

 

She was so desperate she was actually considering doing a follow-up to Tutor for the Heart. She would blame this idea on spending too much time with David but Quinn was afraid to acknowledge what that would mean. The original story ended with Ashley being strong enough to leave her New York City suburb and the shallow life behind for a fresh start in California by herself. David's alter ego allowed Ashley to leave because it was best for her. (Quinn did not want to acknowledge how close her fictional scenario was to the real life situation. She'd just gotten to the point where she didn't mention the whole thing whenever she meets David for coffee or whatever.) Her editor at the time wanted to change the original ending but Quinn got away with it by pointing out Ashley was too young for a serious relationship and this would allow Quinn to write a sequel later on. At the time, she was never planning to visit this universe again but Quinn couldn't help but wonder where Ashley would be 10 years later. She blamed David for making her think about that after their first coffee date.

 

Of course, when Quinn started writing said story, she accidentally typed David instead of the name of the her actual male protagonists multiple times. Despite having four chapters in rough draft, she gave up on that project. She would blamed her Freudian slip on the fact that she was spending so much time with David now but that would be a lie. He had a tendency to stay on her mind a lot. Okay, so maybe they exchanged 200 text messages when she was in Malibu for the week but half of those were related to how to deal with Briana and Chloe driving her crazy. That didn't count.

 

"You're still staring at a blank screen." Kat said as she brought Quinn a cup of coffee and a plate of fruit. Even though Quinn wasn't producing anything new for Kat to review she was staying busy by working on her own manuscript, functioning as an intermediary between Quinn and her publisher or publicist, dealing with Jake, and keeping Quinn on schedule.

 

"Pretty much." Quinn said with a sigh as she closed the laptop. She could not take looking at the blank screen any longer. It was depressing.

 

"I hate writer's block." Kat sympathized.

 

"This is not writer's block, this is writer's depression." She said as she took a sip of her coffee. The only reason why Kat brought her food was she would forget otherwise.

 

"You're too depressed to write anything?" She asked.

 

"More like I'm depressed, so I doubt my ability to write. Therefore, I believe everything I write is horrible." Quinn said with a sigh as she passed her brainstorming notebook to Kat.

 

"It's definitely depression. A lot of these ideas are really good or at least I think they are. It's kind of hard to read because you have scribbled out through half of it." Kat said holding up the notebook.

 

"Maybe, but I doubt my publisher will be happy with a story about a star high school basketball player being kicked out of his home for being gay only for his father to accept him after Aaron makes it to the NBA."

 

"Fuck your publisher. Write the story you want to write." She said with an encouraging smile.

 

"I'm sure that's what he really wants. He spent half the meeting looking at my chest." Quinn said with a vicious laugh.

 

"It's a silly idea. I know nothing about basketball. I'm sure they would bring up something about authenticity issues again, when he is done looking at my breasts. If it wasn't for you coming up with a ton of research to justify what I did in If, we would still be rewriting it." Quinn said with another long-suffering sigh.

 

"You're best friends with a high school basketball coach. I think Mr. White, or whatever his last name really is, will be happy to help you with any of the authenticity issues. Why do you care about what your publisher thinks? You have been on the New York times bestseller list how many times?"

 

"It doesn't matter how many times you have been on the bestseller list before. You are only as good as your next book. I can't do anything if they don't like it and will not publish what I come up with." Quinn pointed out.

 

"Yes, you are definitely suffering from writing depression. First symptom is lack of self-worth. Maybe the publisher would do something like that to someone like me who is trying to get their first book published. However, you are among the Stephen Kings and J.K. Rowlings of the world." That statement was so flattering that Quinn wondered if Kat said it merely for employment purposes.

 

"I consider that blasphemy." Quinn joked.

 

"Definitely depression. You could do a rewrite of the phone book and sell a million copies. You're that good." Quinn laughed at her statement. "The only reason why your new editor is treating you that way is he is trying to put his mark on your work for his own self-worth. You need to ignore everything he tells you. I personally would love to see a sequel to Tutor for the Heart. I always wonder if Ashley ever got her happily ever after." She said encouragingly.

 

"She found herself. That was the happy ending, not getting the guy even, if she did have him for a little while. Even I'm curious to discover who Ashley would be now." Quinn said getting up from her desk to move to one of the couches with coffee in hand. Maybe if she moved to a different location her mind would allow her to come up with something usable.

 

"Then that's what you should work on." Kat suggested.

 

"I already tried and failed miserably."

 

"Did you save the file?" Kat Asked her.

 

"You know I always do that." Quinn said as she took a long drink of her coffee. If she was paying more attention she would notice that her assistant was turning her laptop back on.

 

"What are you doing?" Quinn asked as she got up from the couch.

 

"Trying to get you out of your depression. Let me read over what you wrote to see if it's really bad or you're just being too hard on yourself. Besides, you should get in your Melody Powers costume about now. I need to get you to Lawndale High by 1:00 PM and already 11:30 AM now." Kat said looking at her watch.

 

"Fine," Quinn said giving up. After Kat read what she wrote and absolutely hated it, Quinn could move on to another idea if she ever came up with anything else again.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

30 minutes later, Quinn walked back into her office wearing a charcoal pants suit, red soul high heels that made her at least 3 inches taller, her sexy librarian glasses, and the brunette wig. If she wasn't being her alter ego for a group of 16 year olds, she would also be wearing a very low cut top and a bra that made her look 2 cups size is bigger. (Although, she probably would go out for coffee afterwards with David, maybe she should where the bra anyway.)

 

So she could safely leave her house without anybody recognizing her she was currently wearing a dark sweatshirt with a hat covering her hair. She also had a backpack filled with Quinn-clothes to change into before she left Lawndale high. (She would not confirm nor deny that the black and red 'guaranteed to get you laid' underwear was in the bag.)

 

If it weren't for pure revenge purposes, she probably would have backed out of her promise to visit Lawndale high as her other self, but she does owe her daughters for the last month of constant teasing. Just because she has coffee with David, twice a week (okay, more like four times a week, not counting how often they talk on the phone) does not mean that they are dating or sleeping together. She was just trying to expand her circle of friends. She liked talking to him and being around him made her happy. She deserved some happiness.

 

What she does not deserve is having her teenage daughters yell out 'don't forget to use a condom' or 'dental dams are your friend' every time she left the house. Neither child believed the excuse that nothing would happen between her and David because he's their doctor. (She knew that it was just an excuse, but Quinn was not ready to admit to that yet.)

 

Bianca went so far as to call the ethics hotline during a session to prove that it would not be a conflict of interest or an ethics violation for David to be with Quinn. Apparently, treating the twins in the first place was a grey area since David already had a preexisting relationship with Quinn and was functioning as a guidance counselor and not their therapist. (If she didn't love her daughter, she would hurt her for telling the hotline person who was a certain character in TftH was based on.) Apparently, it was perfectly OK for David to have a less than professional and possibly romantic relationship with Quinn because no other therapists would be qualified (nor willing) to treat Bianca. Her daughter's ability to scare off mental health professionals was legendary.

 

She should just be happy both daughters had their after school jobs to keep them busy. Things would be worse otherwise. Maybe, she could ask Charles to give Bianca an extra project so she would not have time to interfere with her mother's love life. It was working wonderfully with Chloe. Her mother and Ted had her so busy that she barely had time to ask Quinn who she spends her afternoon with.

 

If only her mother could be distracted that easily. First, it was bad enough that her mom was coming over a few times a week whenever Eric had a business meeting or poker night. (According to Brooke, 'business meeting' is code for 'spending time' with his brand new 20-year-old assistant or entertaining certain clients at Pasties and G Strings on Diego Street) Because her mom was there all the time, she was constantly interrogating Quinn about her new friend as well as convincing her to give Ted a chance.

 

She also went into complete lawyer mode whenever David was at the house. She now understood why her mother was considered one of the best litigators in Maryland. She actually got David to admit he was attracted to teenage Quinn and was tempted to date her but knew Helen would hurt him if he tried anything. However, the truly embarrassing moment occurred when her mother demanded that David sign a legally binding agreement stating he will not sue Quinn for using his likeness in Tutor for the Heart.

 

Quinn also didn't deserve Jake interrogating David every time he came over to visit but at least he wasn't as bad as Helen. Also unlike her mother, her father actually had a reason to be at the house because he actually lived there. Thankfully, even though David was a bit of a nerd, he knew enough about baseball to keep Jake happy. So her father actually liked David but that didn't mean anything and she wasn't interested in him like that. (Really, she wasn't.)

 

Quinn pushed all other thoughts out of her head as she walked back down to her office. Kat was sitting on the couch with her laptop still reading.

 

"I can't believe you hate this. You already have four chapters done." Kat said looking up from the screen.

 

"That doesn't mean it's good." Quinn said with a sigh.

 

"Trust me, it's good and I'm not just saying that because I have to pay rent in two weeks. Yes, there are some grammar issues but that's what you pay me for. Not that I have read TftH recently, but I'm pretty sure the male protagonist name was not David in the original story but again I can fix that." For some reason, Quinn blushed at that.

 

"That's why I don't want to do this." Quinn said grabbing her face with her hand. On the bright side, at least it wasn't Jane or Bianca who saw this. Kat was polite enough to ignore it.

 

"When you have written as many stories as you have, it's perfectly okay to get some of the characters confused." Kat said as an excuse. Quinn was going to have to give her a raise for that alone.

 

"Not when it's a Freudian slip." Quinn mumbled under her breath. If Kat did hear it, she said nothing like a good little assistant.

 

"Jane and Lindy will be here tomorrow for your birthday weekend. I'm sure both can convince you to do this book. In the meantime, Miss Powers, the town car will be here in 5 minutes to take us to LHS. I promised Tom that you would be there on time." Kat said as she pushed Quinn out the door.

 

"You called him Tom not Mr. Sloane?" Quinn asked as she packed up her laptop to take with her. Maybe after her revenge on her two teenage daughters, she could stop at her Starbucks of choice and do some writing before meeting up with David again. Maybe a change of location would allow her to get her creativity back.

 

"Fielding Prep is a small school and Tom was one of the few on campus that did not treat me as a pariah because I was there on scholarship." She said as they walked to the front door. Quinn didn't have to worry about Jake this afternoon while she was at Lawndale High because he was in the office for a few hours today.

 

"We have to talk about your prep school days. I'm sure I could use that for something." She said smiling. She has never done anything set in a private school before. Maybe she could find something that she could use.

 

"I knew I could get you out of this depression." Kat said smiling to herself as the Lincoln Town Car pulled up in the driveway.

 

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Melody Powers was just another character that Quinn has created over the years, the only difference was she sometimes had to exist in real life. Melody was entitled and extremely condescending. At the core she was an adult version of high school Quinn. Underneath the contacts and makeup, Melody was the person Quinn thought she would be if she never met David or became mom to Chloe and Bianca. She came into existence because she wanted Bianca and Chloe to have as normal of a life as possible. They already suffered enough by having one celebrity parent. The twins deserved to have a real home.

 

In the early days, Melody began as an image on the jacket of her book. Then she had to do press tours and book signings. Melody became a regular on Good Morning Today. It was actually a lot easier to do those things in the guise of Melody, than as herself. When she married Jonathan, she spend most of her time as Melody. Melody was the one who accompanied him to the MTV movie awards and played the beautiful wife. Melody was also the one who had her image plastered over every tabloid when everything came undone.

 

Maybe that was why the marriage completely fell apart and not some tragic mistake she made on her part. She would never really allow Jonathan to see her, just the character that she played. She could never just be Quinn around him. How could she expect anything to last when she hid behind another mask?

 

For example, she would never allow Jonathan to look at her rough draft ,yet she just let Kat read four chapters of something she absolutely hated and would most likely never see the light of day. Quinn could argue that she only allowed Kat to read everything because she was her assistant and signed a confidentiality agreement but Quinn would be lying to herself. (She has become an expert at that lately.)

 

Today was not the first time she had gotten up in front of a group of students to discuss her book as her other self. It was starting to become more normal with every book. Doing speaking engagements at colleges could be quite lucrative or so her accountant tells her. She did not care because she usually gave the money to her Ashley foundation charity. There was something great about having her former college writing professor kissing her ass and not knowing that it was her was worth more than monetary compensation.

 

The downside was one student would always ask some extremely inappropriate question regarding the more NC17 scenes in her book or something as equally out of place. However, most of her speaking engagements happen with university students not high school students. Unfortunately, Jodie, Tom, and her sister managed to convince her to speak to the AP and honors English students at Lawndale high. (This was another thing she was stuck doing because Daria found something else more important to do then keep her promises.) Quinn hoped she would be avoiding the more inappropriate questions but knowing her luck; that was not happening. Actually, chances were her own daughters would ask such questions. If they asked her about David in any way, shape, or form they would be grounded until they were both old enough to buy their own champagne to celebrate their freedom.

 

When she signed up for this Quinn was expecting to have a private chat with one class of students, instead she was brought by Tom and Monique to the Lawndale High auditorium after she survived the metal detectors and drug sniffing dogs. (Even if Principal Li was slightly deranged when she made sure Lawndale High had the best security in the state, Monique felt it was a good idea to keep some of her security precautions in place with a celebrity of her magnitude on campus.)

 

"I thought that I was just speaking to your Honor's 11 class?" Quinn asked in confusion.

 

"Do you really think we were going to have an author of your caliber just speak to one or two classes of students? Besides, I never told you it was just to the juniors." Tom said just before he walked onstage and took a seat.

 

"Coward," she mumbled under breath. "He is so dead. I didn't like getting up in front of the whole school when I actually was a student here." Quinn said in irritation.

 

"Don't blame Tom, he is just benefiting from this. He is going to be the cool English teacher for years to come. It was your boyfriend's idea for us to do a school assembly. He said you were looking for the perfect opportunity for children humiliation. As somebody who calls her daughter to the principal's office by her full name every time she does something stupid, I support you fully. Chloe and Bianca have no idea that you are to be a special guest even if I had to bribe my own daughter to keep it quiet. The head yearbook photographer is ready to catch everything for prosperity, of course." Principal Mo said with a smirk. Quinn would have appreciated this evil scheme if it weren't for one thing.

 

"I'm going along with this mostly because they told you that David was my boyfriend." She said with annoyance.

 

"I never said David. I think you protest a little too much." She said with a smirk.

 

"You seem just a little too okay with this, not that there is anything going on between me and the good doctor. Isn't there supposed to be some sort of policy about teachers or in this case guidance counselors dating the parents of their students?" Quinn asked.

 

"There are rules about teachers dating students. If that happens, you had better call your mom, because I will need a really good lawyer to get me off the murder one charges, especially if my child is involved." She could hear the anger in Monique's voice as she spoke. The principal was obviously very protective of her students in an 'I loved children' sort of way instead of a 'we are under attack by the enemy' way that Ms. Li did.

 

"Right there with you." Quinn answered back.

 

"However, when it comes to teachers and parents, as long as I know about it, there is no issue. If you want to date Dr. Yummy, go for it. Besides, I think you need to get laid. It will help you deal with the stress. You seem edgy." Again, the principal smirked and Quinn became crimson.

 

"Monique, David is just a friend." Quinn said just as she has said at least 200 times in the last month.

 

"You may want to find out if Cairo has Starbucks, because you're going to need your coffee fix if you continue to live in the land of denial." Monique said as she walked to the podium to introduce Melody Powers.

 

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Quinn was not sure what made her blush more; Monique's flattering words about her work or the conversation they had earlier about sex and David. (Quinn will not allow anyone to know that she had been having very inappropriate dreams about a certain psychologist resulting in her going through an extra three sets of batteries alone this month.) David was currently standing in the back next to her assistant. God only knew what they were talking about.

 

The whole thing was made worse by the fact there were several cameras in the back including one from Sandi's channel complete with Sandi. She wondered who alerted the media. Her daughter's may have been surprised about her visit but the local news was not.

 

However, the absolutely shocked looks on her daughter's faces made up for any embarrassment that she was feeling. Really, nobody wants their mom to show up to their school even if she is a world famous writer. All the real friends, like Evan and Madison, knew it was her and that's what really matters.

 

After the introductions, Quinn's presentation began with a brief discussion about why she started writing in the first place. The name of the high school she attended was changed and some of the dates were tweaked but she essentially told the truth. Mr. Barch-O'Neil would probably be crying if he knew it was Quinn up onstage (more than he already was, anyway.)

 

She followed that up with reading a few passages from her books. (She specifically avoided Tutor for the Heart because David was only a few rows back. That would just be uncomfortable.) Afterwards, Quinn gave the audience a preview of her next book. She knew that her publisher would be calling her the next day, most likely forgetting that she had permission from the lawyers to preview the book at Lawndale High. Their constant phone calls and e-mails were probably the number one reason why she could not figure out what to do for the next book. Maybe she should take some time off between books just this once.

 

Finally, they came to the question and answer portion of the torture known as public speaking. A lot of the questions were easy to answer such as, what was her inspiration for her characters. (She purposely avoided Bianca's hand right after the question because she just knew her daughter when mention David in the most embarrassing way possible.)

 

Other questions were a lot harder to answer, such as, why her books took a darker turn in the last few years or if she was angry at Jonathan Starr for dating another 18 year old. (If she did not answer that question when her mother asked her the same thing, why would she answer it for a complete stranger in front of television cameras?) Fortunately, for her, Dr. Lane gave that student a week's worth of detention and gave Quinn a look that told her not to answer that extremely inappropriate question. Quinn was thankful for that.

 

Unfortunately, Alexis decided to ask Quinn about what she was planning to work on next. If she didn't know that Alexis was a devoted fan of Melody Powers, Quinn would think the girl was being malicious on purpose. Quinn was able to avoid the question with a non-answer about being in the development stages of her next book. In a way that was true, because she was still trying to develop an idea for the next book. Fucking writer's block.

 

To avoid more extremely embarrassing questions she purposely did not call on her children. They both looked way too eager to turn the tables around on her. She probably should have applied the same principle to her children's friends, especially Madison. She allowed Madison's Jodie Landon-like extracurriculars pull her into a false sense of security. Underneath the student council president smile, a little bit of Jane Lane existed. Quinn was too trusting, assuming that the teenage girl who helped her best friend follow Quinn on her not-a-date would not be overly vicious with her mother and father in the room. She could not be more wrong.

 

"Miss Powers, you stated earlier that you use real life experiences to influence some of the things in your books," Madison began innocently enough. Quinn nodded in agreement as she took a drink of her bottled water. That was a mistake, because in seconds it would be sprayed over the podium as she began to choke.

 

"Did you have sex with your high school tutor on your kitchen table as described in the unabridged version of Tudor for the Heart?" Quinn was too busy choking to notice anybody else's reaction except for David. He seemed bemused before anger took over. According to Kat, Monique gave her daughter a death glare that could cut through ice, the twins were giving each other high fives, and every camera and the room focused on Quinn. Later Joey would tell her about his uncontrolled laughter due to the absurdity of it. They knew she barely held hands before the fourth date back then.

 

Because of her freaked out reaction, they were all going to think that she really did have sex on the kitchen table with David, not that they knew it was him. She was so screwed or rather Melody was. Thank God for alter egos.

 

"I think that's enough questions for the day." Monique said recovering quickly as she padded Quinn on the back. "On behalf of all of Lawndale High, I would like to thank Miss Powers for taking the time out of her busy schedule to visit our school." Tom started, trying to avoid an extremely awkward situation but Quinn knew it was best to answer the question otherwise she was going to be accosted by reporters as soon as she left the building.

 

"I write fiction, not biography. Even though my books are grounded in my experiences, I do have to spice things up every now and then. I threw in the kitchen table thing to get back at my mother." Quinn said smirking as she walked back to take her seat.

 

"Let's have another round of applause for special guest Melody Powers." Monique said quickly. Within seconds, everybody was clapping. "Also, as soon as this assembly is over with, will Madison Eunice Lane, Bianca Morgendorffer and Chloe Morgendorffer please report to my office immediately. You are dismissed." Monique said this in a voice that would make Ms. Li sound pleasant. They were so screwed. Quinn tried hard not to smile.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"I can't believe that she asked that." Monique said as they waited behind stage for the students to safely make it back to their classes.

 

"I can. She has been asking questions like that since she found out that Dr. Yummy was the bases for one of my characters." Quinn said with annoyance. "It was my fault for calling on her."

 

"They are still calling me Dr. Yummy?" She heard David asked as he walked backstage. She quickly gave him a peck on the cheek which was something that they normally did. She did that with most of her friends.

 

"It's better than the other nicknames that I can't repeat during school hours." Monique mumbled to herself. "I need to go to my office and take care of that little problem. David, can you please take Melody to my office once the students are back in class?" She asked politely but they both knew it was an order.

 

"No trouble." David said as Monique left the backstage area.

 

"Are you okay?" he asked Quinn as they sat down on an old teachers desk backstage.

 

"I should be asking you that question." Quinn mumbled as she covered her cheeks in embarrassment.

 

"No one knows that she was asking if we ever had sex on your kitchen table when you were in high school." He tried to joke but Quinn remembered the look of terror on his face earlier.

 

"Except for Principal Monique, her husband, Mr and Mr. Williams, Tom, my assistant, my daughters, and their real friends. I don't care what total strangers think about me." David just gave her a strange look but said nothing. "I only choked on my water because I wasn't expecting her to do that in front of both of her parents. Don't worry about it. That actually wasn't the worst question this afternoon." Quinn told David in reassurance. David just squeezed her hand in response.

 

"What was the worst question?" David asked but Quinn never got to answer him because Sandi busted through the stage doors with camera crew and Kat running behind her. Her assistant look ready to kill. It was enough to make Quinn thankful that she still had on her Melody Hair.

 

"I know you treat your assistant in a way that has been illegal in this country since Lincoln freed the slaves but you need to get over yourself. If you want to speak to Miss Powers you need to call her publicist. She doesn't have time to deal with you, nor would she want to." Kat practically yelled at Sandi.

 

"I really don't care what you have to say. It's obvious you are just a temp. I am sure a woman as discerning as Ms. Powers will be happy to appear on my show or even tape a piece right now." This was followed by more Sandi ass kissing including various putdowns of Madison and her friends, also known as Quinn's children. It took all of her mental willpower to suppress what she really wanted to say.

 

"I'm sorry that's just not possible. I'm only in town for today as a personal favor to Dr. Lane, who is a close personal friend of mine." Quinn said as she left the room with David following behind her but not before relishing the shocked and angry look on Sandi's face. Unfortunately, Sandi didn't understand the meaning of the word no and followed behind. She was practically begging Quinn for an interview. (According to Stacy, Sandi's ratings were in the toilet now that she was being boycotted for saying ignorant/stupid things about Quinn and Lindsey. Sandi forgot that Lindsey Snow fans were vicious.) Sandi would kill herself if she knew that it was Quinn she was so desperately trying to impress.

 

"I'll be doing promotion for the new book in May and June. If you work with my publicist, we may be able to set something up later on." Quinn said as politely as possible. She was practically biting the inside of her lip as she spoke. She absolutely hated the witch. There was no way in hell Quinn would ever be on that show, unless it was part of some revenge planned. If she was ever going to come out about being Melody Powers, she would do it on Sandi's show just to watch her go into cardiac arrest on live television.

 

Thankfully, David called security and they escorted the wicked witch of morning television off school property. Even if that wasn't the case, Quinn seriously doubted that she would follow Quinn to the principal's office. What followed was a lot of screaming and yelling. Fortunately Quinn got to sit on the sidelines until it became too much. She just could not understand why her kids were having so much fun teasing her. She was beyond frustrated and therefore decided to hide in the first office that she came across.

 

"How did you find me?" Quinn asked in anger and frustration as soon as David walked into the office. That was when Quinn realized exactly where she was. She had been called to this office several times in the last month mostly because Bianca and Chloe keep getting into fights with Alexis. The twins may argue like cats and dogs but if you mess with one, you mess with the other.

 

"You're in my office." He said with a reassuring smile as he led her by the hand to the couch. His office was much like the interior of his house. It was much more soothing then the way it was before when this was Dr. Madison's office.

 

"I knew this place looked familiar." She joked. "I just needed to get out of there. I'm still recovering from the Sandi fiasco and I couldn't deal with my kids thinking that it's okay to do stuff like this. What if the twins go too far one day and people figure out that Melody and I are one in the same?" Quinn's voice was panicky by this point in and even she realized her hands were shaking.

 

"Would that be such a bad thing?" David asked as he began to rub circles on her back to help her relax. The tension instantly went out of her at his touch.

"It's not like I want the Sandi's of the world to have any more ammunition against me. What really makes me angry is the way she acted this afternoon. I should not be surprised; being a complete ass kisser is classic high school Sandi. I was just waiting for her to put the knife in my back. She has been slandering my children and me for the last month and then she had the audacity to ask me for a favor. Imagine what she would do if she knew the truth." Quinn said with a shiver or maybe that was a moan. David was really good with his hands…

 

"I do not even want to think about what she has been doing to poor Stacy. I want to ram one of my shoes into her ice-cold heart but that would probably just end up breaking the shoe because her heart is made of stone if she has one at all. I thought I left all this behind when I got the hell out of Lawndale the first time." She laughed and David responded by kneading her shoulders harder.

 

"I was able to pick up on your anger before you even left the conference room. You were shaking. I can also feel the tension right now in your shoulders. Take a deep breath and think of something relaxing, such as Sandi being dragged off by security." She smirked back as she let David's voice wash over her and allowed his touch to soothe her.

 

"Take another deep breath and let it out slowly. Don't worry about your children; teasing is how they say they love you. Forget about Sandi, She can't hurt you unless you let her. You are a beautiful, intelligent, successful woman. Most likely, she's attacking you because you have everything she wants." Now if it wasn't for his first words she would be disputing what he said afterward. Considering how dysfunctional her life is, why would anybody be jealous of her?

 

"You think I'm beautiful." Quinn said with a blush.

 

"That's what you got out of that?" He said with a smile. She loved that smile. As a teenager, she only saw it when she got the answer to a question right, now she saw it all the time.

 

"I haven't had sex in over a year. I take what I can get." She joked. Anyone else would have blushed at her words, but he just smiled.

 

"You could always call up Diego." He said referring to the first guy she ever had sex with, also known as the escort that Lindsey hired to deflower her.

 

"Why did I tell you about that?" She said with a groan pulling away slightly.

 

"I think it involved three glasses of wine." David said as his hands went to his side.

 

"Probably." Quinn said with a sigh.

 

"You are beautiful inside and out. Your alter ego, not so much." He said looking at her brunette wig.

 

"You don't like Melody?" She questioned.

 

"Not so much." He said with a sad expression.

 

"Everyone else does." She blurted out thinking about how people treated her alter ego.

 

"But she's not real, you are." At that point, Quinn could feel David pushing back her wig. "I prefer redheads anyway." She could feel him running his fingers through her hair. The touch made her shiver more than before. His body was on top of her, close to straddling her. She can feel his breath on her lips. If she just moved a bit closer, they would be kissing. How many times as a teenager did she think about kissing him? She was always afraid to. Now, Quinn wanted to close the distance more than anything.

 

 

Then Kat opened the door. If she wasn't the best assistant ever, she would be fired.

 

"Monique's assistant said you were hiding…" Kat started but stopped when she most likely saw the incriminating position she was in.

 

"I'm just going to wait outside. Your clothing is in this bag." Kat said as she threw the bag at her. "Please remember to use a condom." Kat yelled out just as the door closed. Quinn did not even have time to tell Kat it was not what it looked like.

 

"Why do all my friends think that we are having sex?" Quinn asked placeing her wig on the table. She wanted to crawl underneath it and die of embarrassment. The only thing that could have made that worse was if the twins were standing behind her.

 

"I think it has something to do with the term ‘friend’ being used as a code word for lover." He laughed.

 

"I do it all the time in my books."

 

"Would it be so bad if we were more than friends?" Unfortunately, for Quinn she was walking to her bag when she ran right into the wall at his words.

 

"Are you okay?" He asked with concern and thinly veiled amusement.

 

"The wall broke my fall." Quinn said grabbing her bag not answering his original question.

 

"Sit down. Maybe you better stay in here for a while. You can even take a nap. I'm supposed to be giving a lecture on body image in ninth grade health class in 10 minutes anyway."

 

"That's a good idea. I'm suffering from sleep deprivation from trying to get the book done on time. It is making me do silly things, like walk into walls. Besides, the longer I stay and hear the less likely I have to deal with other reporters. I should probably change too. If I walk out of here looking like myself, maybe Sandi won't bother me. I'm sure she is waiting outside school property to get the exclusive with Melody." She said rambling still trying to avoid getting back to David's question. Was he joking or did he actually want a relationship with her. The thought alone scared her so much that she was pretending she did not hear the question.

 

"Probably, although you may need to spend the night here. I doubt an hour or two will deter her." David said as he walked over to his desk.

 

"Lucky for me I brought my laptop. I can stare at the blank word document in your office just as easy as at my house." She saidquickly.

 

"Writer's block?" He asked as he searched for his black bag that he keeps all his teaching supplies in.

 

"Writer's depression, I have lots of ideas but I hate everything." Quinn said with another sigh.

 

"So I'm guessing a question about what you are going to do next was a harder question than anything about your personal life. You hate everything you're writing?" He said looking at her. After being friends for about a month, David has somehow managed to be able to tell when she was lying.

 

"I'm thinking about doing a sequel to one of my other books but I changed my mind. It's not a big deal. We'll talk when you get back. You have children to go influence." Quinn said vaguely pushing him out the door.

 

"I would be interested in reading a sequel for Tutor for the Heart." Quinn's mouth dropped in shock at his words.

 

"How did you know which book?” She asked in shock.

 

"We can talk when I get back." That's when David turned around and gently kissed her on the lips before leaving his office.

 


	10. Chapter 10

She was not expecting him to kiss her. She wanted it, but was not expecting it. David was supposed to be the rational one. Quinn was so shocked that she stood there for several minutes running her fingers over her lips. She really wanted him to kiss her or at least part of her brain did. (That was the part of her brain that usually wrote the illicit sex scenes in her book and was now figuring out how to use the last 15 minutes for her next book.)

 

The other part of her brain, that was still shell-shocked from Jonathan Starr, was currently panicking. She liked David, really liked David and not just because her lips still felt all tingly several minutes later. He just understood her in a way nobody else could. He was supposed to be her safety crush and friend. She told herself that nothing was going to happen. If he didn't do anything 12 years ago, he wouldn't do anything now, Quinn rationalized. Of course, when has anything in her life gone as expected in the last 16 months.

 

She and Jonathan were supposed to be working on their first child together, as her father enjoyed his successful business, as her mother freaked out about the fact that she was going to become a biological grandmother. Instead, Jonathan fucked the barely legal, making a fool of her in the process. Her father had a heart attack and almost died. She moved across the country so she can watch her mother's second marriage implode spectacularly. Now, she was dealing with the fact that the first guy she ever really liked kissed her. The urge to hide under furniture was returning again.

 

The romance novel side of her brain wanted to strip naked and put on the guaranteed to get you laid underwear in her backpack. Considering she needed to change out of her current outfit anyway, that was a practical course of action. Knowing her luck, one of her teenage daughters would walk through the door at that moment. Bad option.

 

The other part of her brain wanted to drive to BWI and get on the first plane to anywhere (after she signed the children out of class). She was too afraid of the Jonathan situation repeating itself. The other side of her brain told her that she needed to get over this fear. She didn't want Jonathan's actions to keep controlling her. If she ran away now that's exactly what she would be doing.

 

Before the two sides could get in a fight, her phone started vibrating. Apparently, she had a text message from Dr. Yummy. She wondered who broke into her phone and changed David's information in her contacts. It was probably one of her kids. Most likely Bianca, because her computer genius child probably could break into her cell-phone remotely without even trying. Somebody was getting grounded tonight.

 

 **Dr. Yummy:** Don't panic.

 

Quinn couldn't help but laugh at the message. He knew her a little too well.

 

 **Quinn:** I'm not panicking, I am just looking for international flights from BWI.

 

Quinn typed this as a joke even if part of her brain was still considering it. Love leads to pain and suffering, there-in lays the dark side. (She blamed Bianca and Lindsay for the Star Wars references in her inner musings.)

 

 **Dr. Yummy:** Paris might be good if you're ready to leave denial land.

 

Quinn: Very cute, if horribly cliche. I'm fine. Thoughts of dating and/or kissing usually trigger a panic attack.

 

Quinn typed as her breathing started to return to normal and she felt significantly calmer.

 

Dr. Yummy: You have been doing well for the last month. You haven't broken out in hives once.

 

Quinn: We've been dating for a month??????

 

The multiple question marks were solely to express her shock. No dating has been going on for the last month, even if lots of takeout and movies were involved.

 

Dr. Yummy: It's whatever you wanted to be.

 

She looked anxiously at her phone for a few minutes not sure how to respond. What exactly did she want this to be? Honestly, she just wanted it to not be the mess it was with Jonathan.

 

 **Quinn:** Except now there's make out privileges.

 

Quinn responded deciding that humor was better than honesty.

 

 **Dr. Yummy:** You didn't kiss back.

 

 **Quinn:** Too much in shock.

 

Quinn typed in complete honesty. Actually, she was still in shock. Her brain was still desperately trying to process the last 30 minutes.

 

 **Dr. Yummy:** What about after class?

 

 **Quinn:** I don't know, maybe I should go home. God knows I need to ground those two for their stunt today.

 

Okay Quinn knew that was an excuse. No one would be home for hours. She just wasn't ready to deal with this. Unfortunately, David knew that too.

 

 **Dr. Yummy:** The twins are working today after school. No one will be home until seven. I suggest taking the iPhone away. Traditional grounding will just punish you.

 

She couldn't help but smile, remembering the time she and Daria got caught staying out after curfew (that she did not know about) and spent several weeks being tortured with family game night. Then she thought about family game night with the twins and the teasing she would most likely encounter. That would just punish her.

 

 **Quinn:** Good point. Coffee and then maybe I will let you read what I'm working on.

 

 **Dr. Yummy:** My students are currently brainstorming on body image stereotypes but I'm going to have to start talking soon. Instead of coming to my house, we can go to yours. That way you can still be the perfect mother and prison guard.

 

Quinn couldn't help but smile at his message.

 

 **Quinn:** Sure but if my father hurts you for defiling his baby girl, don't say I didn't warn you.

 

Quinn types with a smile.

 

 **Dr. Yummy:** So you plan for there to be some defiling?

 

Quinn's cheeks went scarlet. She had no idea what to respond with. BWI was starting to become tempting again.

 

 **Dr. Yummy:** Quinn, I was joking. Do not drive off to BWI

 

He wrote her after several minutes of Quinn staring silently at her cell phone.

 

 **Quinn:** I know that. ;) No defiling just yet, maybe later.

 

Again, the two sides of her brain were fighting over if they actually wanted that to happen. Fortunately for her David was too busy with his students to actually reply.

 

Romance loving Quinn was happy and therefore in the creative zone. Shell-shocked Quinn decided to let romance loving Quinn do whatever she wanted for the rest of the afternoon. This was probably because despite everything that had happened in the past shell shock, Quinn Morgendorffer knew that David is not Jonathan. Maybe he was worth the risk. Because romance loving Quinn was happy, she was able to type up two more chapters for her yet untitled sequel. This meant that she was doing a sequel. Stupid muse.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"You're still here?" David asked skeptically as he saw Quinn now dressed comfortably in jeans and a T shirt sitting on his couch with a laptop in her lap working on a scene with the now fashion designer Ashley going on a coffee date with her former boyfriend who is now writing a series of articles on her. Currently in the sequel, David's alter ego was a journalist for a fashion type magazine. She was not completely happy with that choice but she did not like any of the alternatives. She considered making him a doctor but Quinn thought that would be too much like real life. Journalists seem more likely for the character anyway and worked with the plot even if that didn't seem like the type of magazine that he would work for.

 

"You told me to wait for you and my assistant ran away after she saw whatever she thinks she saw." Quinn said with a dismissive wave of her hand to the couch. "Unfortunately, she took the town car with her. Cab companies will not set foot on campus due to some incident involving Miss Li releasing the hounds/drug dogs on one of their colleagues during my senior year, among other things." Quinn really wished she was joking. According to Monique, her predecessor caused a lot of chaos with her paranoia.

 

"I thought that was an urban legend." David said sitting down beside her.

 

"You worked here for how long? This place brings meaning to the phrase ‘stranger than fiction’. Although, at least here there's no LSD in the drinking water." Quinn decided it was best not to explain that. "The cab thing is true, which means I'm stranded here unless you take me home." She said with a pout.

 

"You live less than a mile away." David replied.

 

"But I hate walking and these are new shoes." She said holding up her sneakers.

 

"Chloe says you run 4 miles every day." David said with his arms folded over his chest.

 

"Chloe has a big mouth." Quinn mumbled under breath. "Besides, I prefer to do that on a treadmill, in the air conditioning, without carrying a laptop." she argued.

 

"Valid point," David said with a smile. "So you're not terrified of spending time with me now that you can no longer tell yourself we're just friends." Seriously, why does he have to be so good at reading her. It's just not fair. Did she really want to date somebody who could tell when she was lying?

 

"I'm completely terrified." Quinn answered honestly but as he would know anyway. "But that's mostly because you can get me to acknowledge that I'm terrified. Most people can't do that."

 

"What are you most afraid of?" David asked her slipping into psychologist mode. He did that a little too often, but Quinn supposes that is normal for him.

 

"I'm going to go with everything blowing up in my face and losing one of the few people I can talk about anything with. Also, do you have any idea how hard it is to find somebody who Bianca will actually talk to?"

 

"I've been told I am the first doctor to last more than two sessions. Although, it probably helps that technically I am her guidance counselor, even if I do have a Ph.D. in child and adolescent psychology." David said with a sigh.

 

"Exactly, I took her to 20 different doctors after Lindsey died and no one could get her to talk about how she felt about it. You're the only person that she trusts not to betray her that's not her sister, my sister, Me, or Madison. I don't want to mess that up for make out sessions and a few hopefully good orgasms. I need someone that I can just vent about my life to. I need someone who I can trust with my children. I trust you and I don't want to lose that." Quinn told him with shaky breath.

 

"But you can't trust me with your heart." He looked at her with a sad expression.

 

"Meat Loaf always said that two out of three is not bad." Quinn joked trying to relieve the tension. It did not work. "My secrets and my children are more important to me than my heart. Jonathan had my heart but nothing else. That's why everything fell apart." She said with voice on the verge of tears.

 

"Quinn?" David whispered her name as a question as he ran a finger down her cheek.

 

"David, it's true. We have been back in each other's lives for about six weeks now and I'm willing to give you more of myself then in my entire marriage to Jonathan. Unlike my former husband, you actually know the name of the first person I had sex with and the entire story behind it. You know about what I really think of my mother's marriage to Eric and how much I still resent her for the divorce. You know that I started the Ashley Foundation because I never wanted another group of friends to lose their Tiffany to something like anorexia. I trust you with Bianca and Chloe's secrets, when I did not even like for Jonathan to be home alone with the children." Tears were actually falling down her cheeks at that point.

 

"Considering what happened, I don't blame you." he mumbled under breath.

 

"Maybe that's why I never trusted him. I could never cry in front of him as I am now. I had him sign a confidentiality agreement before he even met Bianca and Chloe for the first time." A worried expression fell over David's face at that moment.

 

"Yet, you never asked the same of me. Is that because you trust me not to go to the tabloids?" He asked.

 

"Completely and not just because of your Hippocratic oath. I trust you because it's you. That's why I was so angry at my mother last week because she asked you to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding 'Tutor for the Heart'. I trust you not to screw me over, she does not." Quinn said out loud realizing for the first time held true those words really were.

 

"So, it's because of Jonathan that you don't trust me when it comes to matters of the heart." His voice was a mixture of anger and sadness.

 

"No, at least not entirely. You made me wary of you all on your own. The last time I tried to give you my heart, you refused to take it." Quinn said unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice

 

"Quinn, you were 16." David interrupted her. Quinn personally believed a new drinking game should be created around that one line. Every time David excuses what he did to her back in high school, he brings up her age. One could get smashed in no time.

 

"I know that. You are right for making the decision you made. Hell, I've mimicked it in my book without even knowing that was why you did what you did. I'm trying to get over that. That's why I am willing to let things be whatever they will be but I want you to promise me three things." Quinn said taking a deep breath to calm her nerves.

 

"I'm perfectly willing to take you to the best restaurant in town, as long as it's not Chez Pierre." David's words got her to smile.

 

"I'm not sure how that restaurant would be considered the best in town under any definition, unless it was the only restaurant in town." She joked back. "You know I'm happy with Starbucks or Pizza."

 

"You're much more low maintenance now." Quinn responded with a smile before continuing.

 

"The first thing I want is your promise that if we figure out that we are better as friends we actually become friends. I really need someone to talk with about my sister, my children, and my parents without recrimination. You're that person. I don't want to lose that." He actually smiled at that.

 

"That seems plausible. Also, you don't have to worry about me leaving you for the underage. I spend so much time around giggling teenage girls that I could never find one sexually attractive." David smirked.

 

"That is a point in your favor. I don't think Chloe could deal with that trauma one more time. I know I can't." Quinn mumbled that part under breath but judging by David's expression he heard every word. "Next, I want you to promise that if things fall apart that you will still be there for the children. They come first, even if that means that I will be spending the rest of my natural life with only my vibrator for company." He smirked at that.

 

"I agree with you on that, especially given the fact that I don't think there is another doctor willing to take Bianca yet. I'm working on it though." He said that last part quietly.

 

"Why? I don't want that to happen." Quinn said in a near panic remembering the incident with the crying psychologists.

 

"It would be a conflict of interest, even if the ethics hotline is okay with that. The only reason why they are okay with it is because they're aware of that one incident where the doctor 'retired' after his session with Bianca. There's a reason why doctors do not treat their own children. It's hard to be objective when it's someone you know and care about. Besides do you really want to confess your deepest secrets to your mother's boyfriend?" Quinn could barely handle being civil to Eric, let alone, see him as somebody she could trust.

 

"Good point, although, it's going to take a small miracle to find someone else. That doctor did not retire, he was institutionalized. Maybe this is a bad idea." Quinn said starting to pack up but David stopped her just as she was about to close her laptop.

 

"Stop worrying over nothing. It's not like my door is going to be closed to Bianca and Chloe, it's just that there has to be some professional distance." He said squeezing her hand.

 

"You're right. It's just I don't do well with change and the girls are even worse than me. That brings me to my final request, that we just keep things between us until we know what's going on." Quinn was actually biting her lip as she said this.

 

"I was going to suggest the same thing. Let's figure out this between us before we tell the girls." Quinn exhaled in relief at that.

 

"Thank god you agreed. I would never hear the end of the teasing."

 

"Especially if they catch you writing an almost pornographic scene between Ashley and my other self." David said looking at her computer. She really should get one of those screen protectors that keep people from reading over her shoulder. Quinn quickly slammed her laptop closed before he could see anything else.

 

David responded by kissing her again. Unlike the first time, she was not completely petrified and kissed back. There was also a certain amount of groping involved. The couple only stopped when Quinn almost dropped her laptop. That would have been bad because she didn't back up her latest story Stuff to her server.

 

"Come on let's get to your house." He said as he placed her laptop in her carrying case. She just nodded in agreement.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Contrary to what certain so-called friends would say, they did not go back to her house to have sex. She will not confirm nor deny that she ran into Monique as she left David's office who made certain comments about Quinn leaving with her shirt on backwards. There may have been some heavy petting and serious making out on the tiny couch in her office but no sex. (Because let's be honest, she wasn't psychologically ready for sex yet and David knew that.)

 

Instead, she sat on her couch going over story ideas munching on beef and broccoli with David. Personally, she couldn't believe she let him read her rough draft complete with Freudian slips. It was probably caused by her brain being overloaded by hormones due to all the making out. He was kind enough not to point out all the places she wrote David instead of the name of the actual character. He actually gave her lots of helpful suggestions.

 

Instead of the story taking place 10 years after the first story as she originally planned, it is now set 15 years in the future. The idea to make Ashley's love interest as a fashion writer was quickly kicked out the window. As David pointed out, it didn't fit that well with the original story. He was now the kindergarten teacher to Ashley's adorable five year old daughter. Ashley was also moving back to her hometown after a nasty divorce instead of her mother's death. This meant major rewrites for this stuff she already worked on but she was much more content with the direction of the story now. Currently they were trying to figure out what Ashley's deep dark secret should be this time around.

 

"Being on the run from the mob just doesn't seem plausible. Evil ex husband, I would believe." David suggested as he grabbed a piece of broccoli from her container. Grabbing food from each other was pretty normal at this point.

 

"I already wrote an abusive husband story. I don't want to do that again." She said with a sigh, remembering how unhappy the publishers were with that story until it made the bestseller list.

 

"Good point. You could always have it come out that Ashley got pregnant during the initial relationship and kept it quiet for 15 years. Unfortunately, you have to deal with accusations of glorifying teen pregnancy. But how can you be glorifying something if you show true reality? I'm so sick of parents who think you're encouraging their teenagers to screw on every surface if you talk about sex at all." Quinn just started laughing at that point.

 

"Why are you laughing? I think it's a good idea." David said in mock offense.

 

"In an earlier draft of the story, Ashley decided to move to California because she found out she was pregnant and didn't want to get her lover in trouble. She also didn't want to be forced into having an abortion because that was just how Ashley's family was. The publishing house absolutely despised the idea. Actually, they despise the fact that I brought up the A word at all. It was my first book, so I have to do what they said. They barely let me have Ashley leave for California at all. They wanted something happy and Disney light." Again, Quinn was still slightly better about this.

 

"But now several books later you can do what you want." He pointed out.

 

"Not if I want to get published. I told you about the comic book thing." She said with a sigh of annoyance.

 

"We're definitely working on your self-esteem. You know the whole thing was a power struggle. You probably could have bought the publishing company yourself." He said trying to reassure her.

 

"I know." Quinn said not making eye contact.

 

"Write whenever you want." He said leaning over to most likely kiss her again but he pulled away at the last minute. Apparently, he could hear the footsteps of teenagers better than she could.

 

"I see that you decided to break in the couch in your office instead of all the various places at Dr. Yummy's house. Did you get sweet and sour pork?" Quinn just wanted to roll her eyes at her Bianca's words. She was surprised her daughter was home 45 minutes early.

 

"Didn't we have a long conversation about you not teasing your mother about her sex life?" David asked before Quinn could respond. "Would you want her to ask you the same type of invasive questions?"

 

"No we had a long conversation about me asking you questions about my mother sex life." Bianca said grabbing a piece of broccoli from her container. Quinn didn't say anything because at least it was a vegetable.

 

"Bianca!" Quinn chided with a sigh of irritation.

 

"It's not like I was asking for details. Because, honestly, I don't want to know. Actually, I don't want to know if you two are having sex until you tell me about my new baby sister. There was a reason why I told you to put the nursery stuff in storage, instead of giving it to charity." David almost looked shocked for a moment before recovering. Quinn wasn't surprised at all. Bianca and Chloe had wanted a new sibling since as long as Quinn had known the twins. Although, usually Chloe was the more vocal one.

 

"Your sweet and sour pork is in the fridge. I also got the crab ragout that you like but you need to eat a vegetable of some sort, preferably not fried." Quinn said in an effort to get off the baby track.

 

"Fried green beans are still a vegetable." Bianca said in her defense.

"I'm not going to argue about that. Hand over your cell phone."

 

"But mom?" Bianca whined as expected.

 

"You're grounded, sort of, for your role in this afternoon's incident. I told you this before I left Dr. Lane's office. No iPhone for a week and I'm donating 25% of your next three paychecks before taxes to help bring Glory and honor to Lawndale high. I'm sure Dr. Lane can use the money for the capital improvement fund at LHS. I would take your computer away, but you need that for work and school. Let's be honest, me trying to block your Facebook access would be laughable. Also as Helen taught me, anything involving confining you to the house would be punishing myself." Quinn said with a shiver.

 

"I would make a comment about you not wanting me to stay at the house because you want private time with David but that would just get me another two weeks." Bianca said as David looked at her sharply.

 

"Good. You're already learning." Quinn said with a smile.

 

"But what if there's an emergency. What if I finally decided to take care of Lexis once and for all and I need help disposing of the body. It's not like there's pay phones everywhere anymore. Can't you just donate half of my paycheck to Dr. Lane's LHS capital improvement fund instead?" Bianca pleaded and David looked alarmed.

 

"She's joking about killing Lexis." Quinn said as she walked over to her desk and pulled out something reminiscent of the phone her mom used when Quinn was in high school.

 

"Don't make jokes like that. David has a legal obligation to report anything involving you trying to hurt yourself or others. Also, I think you will miss your phone more than your pizza discretionary fund. Your sister is losing her credit card for the next month." Quinn said smirking.

 

"Sorry," Bianca said before looking up at the phone in Quinn's hand. "What is that?" Bianca said eyeing the phone with disgust.

 

"A cell phone." Quinn said with another roll of her eyes.

 

"That's not a cell phone. There's no keyboard, touchscreen, or camera. Does that even have Internet access?" Bianca said in abhorrence.

 

"No, but it makes phone calls." She said throwing the phone at Bianca. "So if Trevor from Oakdale tries to put his hand down your skirt, you will be able to call grandma to pick you up from jail after you break his hand."

 

"Like I would call Grandma Helen. Aunt Jane or Lindy are much better for this sort of thing. They will send bail money without asking questions. This is so unfair. Dr. Lane already gave us detention every Friday until the end of the school year because that's one of the few days of the week we are not working after school. I have asked questions like this before and you never took away my phone. I was not even the one who asked you the question." Bianca argued.

 

"Yes, but you got your friend to do it. Besides, you ask me those questions in the privacy of our own home. If mom pisses me off one more time, I may be willing to play along with you the next time you asked me about certain things in front of her. I wish you would stop making jokes but I know jokes are how you show you love me. However, this type of behavior in front of camera crews from every station in the Baltimore-DC metropolitan area is a completely different matter. What if somebody puts two and two together and figures out that I am Melody Powers? Our secret life is for your safety."

 

"I know." Bianca said in typical annoyed teenager fashion.

 

"Sometimes, I don't think you do. The press has barely backed off after Sandi let everybody know who your biological mother was. It will be 10 times worse if people find out I am Melody Powers. Do you want to be followed by the press all the time?" She asked Bianca and all seriousness.

 

"No." The teenager replied with a sigh of resignation. "You're worrying for nothing. I had a bad childhood because the woman who gave birth to me was a narcissistic drug addict, fame had nothing to do with it. Actually, her being rich provided us with some stability because we had you. You're my real Mom." This wasn't the first time she had heard this argument but she just did not see things that way.

 

"Living in a fishbowl can damage any one. I'm trying to prevent that." Quinn said with a sigh.

 

"Fine, believe what you want. Can I have my iPhone back? If I don't keep up with my games, my digital zoo will die. Think of the animals. You don't want to kill the digital bunnies do you? You can donate my entire paycheck to charity for the next six weeks." Her child really is addicted to her phone.

 

"You can have it back Thursday. Grab your food and sit with us." Quinn said even though she was half tempted to give the phone back.

 

"What are you working on other than a brand new baby brother or sister?" Bianca asked 10 minutes later after she returned with a sensible portion of sweet and sour pork and steamed vegetables. Quinn was sure this was an attempt to get her to give Bianca her phone back now.

 

"We'll work on that Monday." David said with head in hand.

 

"The baby?" Bianca asked smirking.

 

"Your inappropriate behavior. I am helping your mom work on her next book." David told her with another sigh as Bianca turned to look at her computer screen.

 

"Do you know that you wrote the wrong name several times? Is this like when you kept forgetting that Joey's last name is Williams not White." It was so not her fault that her two friends had switched last names a few times.

 

"You can have your phone back Tuesday if you promise not to ask any more questions about that." Quinn said again repressing the urge to hide under furniture.

 

"Deal." Bianca said being a little too happy about it.

 

Unfortunately for Quinn, she didn't specify what the deal was about and Bianca still made jokes about the name thing until she received several dark looks from David. They had been more than friends for 2 hours and already Bianca was figuring it out. Stupid genius level IQ.

 

Eventually, they moved on to a safer area of conversation involving her new book. Bianca also agreed that her male protagonists would never become a fashion writer. Kindergarten teacher seemed plausible and she pointed out it would be something that housewives in Iowa could identify with.

 

Dinner was spent in the office with various children and parents stopping by. It was the typical Morgendorffer family dinner except that took place in her office and her father only argued for 2 minutes about having to eat steamed vegetables and mandarin chicken instead of the sweet and sour pork and fried rice. David just seemed to fit into this arrangement without really trying. It was like David belong in her family. The other highlight of dinner was her father also scolded the girls for the stunts at school. Apparently, one of his coworkers showed him the news footage. She was personally proud that he did not pop a blood vessel. Although, unlike Helen, her father believes Quinn when she said nothing happens between her and David in high school. She was also proud that he didn't ask David the same invasive question from earlier in the day.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Dinner the next night did not go anywhere near as well. First, David wasn't there. There were many reasons for this. One, if he was at her house every day the 'just friends thing' wouldn't be at all believable, it was barely believable now. Okay, nobody believed them even when it was true, so why would people believed her protest now that she was actively lying about the David situation. Two, he had something work related to do and helping the fragile minds of Lawndale high always came first. She was okay with that and wished that Dr. Madison was that dedicated years ago when Quinn was in high school. Maybe Tiffany would be around if she was.

 

Three, Helen was going to be there. Even if David had no trouble whatsoever with Jake, Helen scared the hell out of him.

 

Her mom being there was the other reason why this dinner was so miserable. Personally, Quinn did not want her mother over either but she had no choice. According to Brooke, who was now working with her mother for reasons that Brooke cannot legally discuss, Eric was really taking her barely legal replacement to dinner in DC instead of a client. Considering how angry her mom looked as she inhaled a large packet of regular French fries, Quinn was pretty sure she did not believe her husband either.

 

Despite the lack of David, up until this point she was having a good day. She had the entire new book mapped out by the time she had to pick Jane up from the train station. This was despite the fact that she spent much of the morning exchanging text messages with David when he wasn't working with students. He even gave her a couple of ideas for the comic book. Her publishers may be willing to do something involving a high school.

 

They were sitting in the living room with coffee brainstorming when her mother came in bringing good coffee and cheesecake. (When her mom breaks out the cheesecake, it's never a good sign. The last time cheesecake was involved was when Jake was in the hospital.) Quinn wasn't surprised because Brooke already warned her that this was going to happen 20 minutes earlier. Her mother said that she decided to spend dinner with Quinn and her grandchildren because Eric was going to be out late entertaining a client. As somebody who was cheated on by her first husband, Quinn knew that code for 'screwing around with a 20 year old assistant' even without the cryptic clues from Brooke. Of course, Quinn would not make her mother pay attention to the elephant in the room. That would be too out of character for this family. Avoidance was their number one coping strategy. Instead, Quinn had her coffee and half of piece of cheesecake as she listened to her mother rant about Quinn's bad parenting skills in regards to yesterday's question incident at the school. Quinn had to send Kat home early because she almost threw a piece of cheesecake at Helen three times. Quinn almost did the same when her mother asked if she engaged in sex with David on the kitchen table as a teenager. Her answer of 'none of your damn business' did not do her any favors later in the evening.

 

After her father picked up the twins from detention with Mr. Lane, where he made the three catalog all the instruments in the music classroom, they headed over to Oakdale Hills for some Five Chicks burgers and fries. Fortunately, for Quinn and her father's heart, Sarah Graves was there and made Jake tried the new eggplant veggie burger with a children's order of sweet potato fries along with a nice garden salad. Quinn knew there was a reason why she absolutely adored Sarah.

 

Unfortunately, as they dined on several of the new menu items including the salmon salad, Bianca and Chloe bluntly pointed out that Jake had a crush on Sarah. Apparently, when he saw her at the restaurant he ran straight into a wall and knocked down the condiment table. Quinn wondered if she was one of the women that her father dated not too seriously. Her mom actually broke a fork during this conversation. Apparently, she recognized her former husband's crush signs very well.

 

"You just had a heart attack. Should you really be thinking about dating at your age, especially a client?" Everyone at the table including Jane stayed silent for several moments. Quinn was too angry to keep her mouth shut.

 

"If dad wants to date again, it's his business, not yours. You are not married to dad any more. You no longer have a say in how he lives his life. Personally, I like Sarah. She is a good person. You gave up any say you have on dad's life when you decided to leave him for Eric, your boss. You are being a complete hypocrite. Dad screwing a client is no different than you being with your boss." Quinn was tactful enough not to add onto that sentence 'while still married.' She really wanted to get through this dinner without calling the cops.

 

"She really is just a friend. Also Dr. Mike said no sex for a while." Her father tried to interject but Quinn was too busy arguing with her mother to actually pay attention. In addition, anything related to her father's actual sex life was usually blocked out automatically.

 

"The situation is different with Eric." Her mother said weakly.

 

"No, it's not." Quinn yelled before her mother could go any further. "I don't believe in double standards. You left dad and got married again. That means dad gets to find somebody new without you interfering. He deserves his own happiness. If it just happens to be somebody from work, that's fine." Quinn explained as calmly as possible as she fought off the urge to throw something at her mother. Her dad actually smiled at her.

 

"Of course, you would feel that way. You're sleeping with your daughter's psychologist. It's probably not a new affair. If you're willing to sleep with your patient's mother, then you're probably willing to sleep with your students." The french fry Quinn was holding was now fried mashed potatoes.

 

"I think you had too much wine grandma." Chloe said taking the glass from Helen. After several years of dealing with Lindsey, unfortunately, her child was well trained at removing alcohol from those who should not drink it. The drink was already being poured down the kitchen sink before Helen could protest.

 

"I don't know what I'm more angry about, you saying nasty things about David that are not true or you not trusting me enough to make my own choices. Nothing happened with David when I was too young to really know what I was doing." Her words were carefully chosen to avoid her mom figuring out that she was doing something with David now.

 

"You chose Jonathan didn't you?" Her mother spat out bitterly.

 

"You chose Eric. Unlike you, I dropped Jonathan the moment I realize he was screwing around on me. I'd rather be alone, then unhappy."

 

"It's never a good sign when someone starts quoting Whitney Houston. At least it isn't Heartbreak Hotel." Quinn heard Jane mumbled next to her.

 

"It's bad when she quotes anything from her personal divorce soundtrack." Chloe added.

 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Helen asked indignantly.

 

"You're a smart woman, mom. Do you really believe Eric is working late with a client right now? Look at the credit card receipts. If it's a client dinner he's going to use the company card." Quinn said bluntly.

 

"He wouldn't do that to me." Helen said in a whisper.

 

"What goes around comes back around, mom." Quinn said just as quietly, fortunately no one mentioned she was now quoting Timberlake. "I love you but this is my life. Dad and I are both adults and we will make our own decisions. We are both old enough to live with those decisions. Go home and deal with your own life. I can handle mine just fine." This was followed by her father escorting hell into the driveway and Chloe liberating her cellphone from Quinn's bag. Chloe was much more argumentative when she had her credit card taken away and therefore also lost her iPhone privileges too.

 

"Hi Dr. David, it's Chloe. Mom just kicked grandma out of the house after she bluntly pointed out that Eric is most likely cheating on her with somebody who is young enough to be our sister. This was after grandma accused you of being a pedophile. Do you know that mom has half a dozen condoms in her purse with warming lub?" That was when Chloe actually grabbed one of the foil packets and held it up for everyone to see. They were the female type because Quinn didn't like latex. Quinn was very thankful that her father was still outside with her mother. Jane being there was bad enough. She was already snickering.

 

"Give me that." Quinn demanded with palm up.

 

"The condoms or the phone." Chloe said innocently.

 

"The phone. Keep the condoms. I don't want grand babies." Quinn said with a smile.

 

"I promise you won't have to worry about that for several years to come." Chloe said handing over both. "I think you'll need these before I will." Personally Quinn was surprised David was not laughing hysterically at this point.

 

"Do I want to know?" David asked as Quinn started to walk to her office.

 

"Chloe's reader digest version was pretty accurate. Although, she did leave out that this all started because mom was jealous of dad possibly being interested in somebody else. I pointed out that she was being a hypocrite because of what happened between her and Eric. She said that I was defending my father's right to sleep with a client because I was having sex with my daughter's doctor. Then she 'implied' that we were screwing around when you were my tutor. At that point, I may or may not have pointed out that Eric was screwing around on her. She's currently with dad in the driveway most likely ranting about what a bad daughter I am and I am hiding in my office talking to you. You know, perfectly normal Friday night at the Morgendorffer house." She said with a laugh that was forced.

 

"That's not good." David said in his psychologist tone.

 

"That I screamed at my mother?" Quinn asked.

 

"That her husband is having an affair." David clarified.

 

"Why do you always have to be so sympathetic?"

 

"I wouldn't be doing my job right otherwise. Do you need me to come over? I think I have the situation stabilized involving that thing I cannot tell you about." That was probably David code for 'the student that I am working with is no longer crying into my shirt'.

 

"No. I can handle it as soon as I find a chocolate bar." She said not wanting to be overly needy. It was too early in their relationship for that. "Just be here for my birthday party. I am definitely going to need a buffer if mom shows up to the party."

 

"Sure." David said happily.

 

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Her 27th birthday was spent signing divorce papers and getting extremely drunk. She may have also been arrested for the bonfire thing. Quinn tried not to think about that birthday. Her 26th birthday involved a party with people there who she couldn't stand and smiling for cameras. She had a feeling her 28th birthday party would be closer to her 26th even with her mom deciding not to show up.

 

Said party this year was thrown by Joey and his husband (in heart, if not by law) in there absolutely fabulous house in Lawndale Valley (complete with basketball court in the back.) The house was currently filled with every single one of their straight or bisexual male friends. Either the couple gave up their attempts on setting her up with David or they decided to try a different strategy. She believed the latter because even though she wasn't interested in any of the guys there because she had David, she realized how hard it would be for her to connect with someone else even on a platonic level. She couldn't even answer a simple question about what she did for a living without some form of dishonesty. She usually went with the story about being independently wealthy and working in philanthropy. That was kind of true because of the Ashley Foundation. (She just found out from her publicist that along with a press junk in May for the book in New York, she would be doing a fundraising event. Next year they would be doing it in DC if she had anything to say about it.)

 

She really did not even feel comfortable talking about her kids with these guys. Too many questions will be asked when they find out that a 28 year old is raising two teenagers. Really, how could she be with anybody who she could not be herself with? It wouldn't be possible and that was another reason why things with David seemed so promising. He knew her.

 

Unfortunately, he wasn't there yet to save her from various pickup lines that made her want to squirm. Jane was too busy flirting with the guys herself and Lindsay was most likely making out with Dr. Mike in one of the guest bedrooms. This meant for the first time in her life Quinn was actually happy that Charles R was at a party that she was attending.

 

"I'm sorry but the beautiful Quinn promised me a few precious moments of her time." Charles said as he literally pulled her away as a group of three guys were just about to get into a fight over who should get her a soda. (Where did Joey find these people?)

 

"Some things never change." Quinn laughed as they walked away.

 

"Except that you are no longer able to fake interest and I am not the one doling out the horrible pickup lines." Charles quipped.

 

"I wasn't that good at it in high school." Quinn said as she grabbed a drink a punch from the table. "Those were the worst pickup lines I have ever heard."

 

"I used worst and I'm still married." Charles shrugged.

 

"Stacy is very tolerant; otherwise she would have killed Sandi years ago. Where is your wife?" Quinn asked with a bit of worry. It's kind of sad that she has seen Charles more over the last month than Stacy. "Please tell me your wife is not still working for dragon lady."

 

"If I had my way she would actually be hiding the body right now, but no such luck. However, she did quit her job about 65 minutes ago. Consider that her birthday present to you." Charles said smiling.

 

"What?" Quinn asked in complete shock. She almost choked on her punch.

 

"Last night was Alexis' 17th birthday and no one but Stacy remembered. Even though she was mad at Lexis for all the fighting with Chloe she still gave her a card and a gourmet cupcake from her favorite bakery. Her father is in Barbados, most likely with his mistress, and god only knows where Sandi was. She disappeared after Friday's taping."

 

'That's not good.' Quinn thought to herself.

 

"What about the other members of the fashion cult?" Despite all the infighting, they never forgot each other's birthdays.

 

"I cannot believe you refer to your former clique as a cult. I'm not even sure they know when Lexis' birthday really is. They're followers, not friends. She doesn't trust people. Who can blame her after being abandoned by her father, biological mother, and multiple stepmothers. I know I was like that." Charles said darkly.

 

"What does this have to do with Stacy quitting her job in addition to not being here?" Quinn asked.

 

"Lexis showed up on our doorstep crying last night, hysterically mumbling about how no one cares about her. She was also completely drunk or possibly high, maybe both. She spent an hour crying on Stacy's stomach before she finally fell asleep. I haven't seen someone in that shape since Tiffany died."

 

"Great, you almost make me feel sorry for her." Quinn mumbled.

 

"If you didn't express sympathy, I would be worried about you. We all know you are nowhere near as cold-hearted as Sandi. Even daddy dearest in Barbados, scheduled a spa day for his daughter and sent her a digital birthday card after he checked his voice mail from Stacy about the situation. He actually felt so guilty he bought it himself before he called to apologize. Of course, he blamed the whole thing on his secretary but at least he realized that he did something wrong." Charles said taking his drink in one.

 

"He most likely forgot to hire one that was smart enough to schedule things like that in his Blackberry calendar." She joked.

 

"If his choice in wretched wives are any indication, he just hires women according to their bra size. Heartless bitch." Charles said still bitter.

 

"What did Sandi do?" Quinn said expecting the worst.

 

"It's more like what she didn't do. Mr. Richardson called immediately after he found out what he did. Sandi didn't call until about 75 minutes ago. When she did call instead of asking about her stepdaughter, she asked Stacy to dig up dirt on Miss Powers. Sandi is convinced she's dating David." Charles told her smirking.

 

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." She said in disbelief.

 

"It gets worse from there. Stacy being the kindhearted person that she is asked Sandy if she had time to check her voice mail. Her response was "Why should I care if my sugar daddy husband's brat is upset because I forgot her birthday. She's not my problem. I never wanted her around."

 

"Bitch." Quinn hissed out automatically.

 

"That's what Stacy called her just before handing in her resignation. Unfortunately, I asked Stacy to keep the phone on speaker so I could listen in. Alexis heard everything."

 

"Oh god. Why aren't you there?" Quinn asked with concern.

 

"Stacy is better at dealing with emotional teenagers than I am. It was so bad that Stacy had to call Alexis' doctor. I'll be heading back soon anyway."

 

"At least I know where David is." Quinn said as she grabbed her phone out of her pocket. Just as she suspected there was a message from David saying that he would be late due to a patient emergency. She was much more angry at Sandi for causing this situation, then her boyfriend (sort of) of two days missing her birthday.

 

"We also decided that I would be the designated birthday present giver." Charles said passing two bags to her. One was large in quite heavy. The other was smaller and lighter.

 

"And you didn't put these with the other presents?" Quinn question.

 

"Too important. I would never leave first editions on the gift table." Quinn thought his phrasing was weird but she didn't have time to ask questions because Charles was already being pulled away by one of the many guys that Joey tried to set her up with.

 

 

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That night Quinn found herself opening presents in her bedroom at the way too early hour of 11:00 PM. She left her own birthday party early, using the twins being grounded as an excuse. Nobody but Jane knew that they were both staying at her brother's house. Jane was staying there too. Her father was going out with Anthony and promised not to have more than one light beer. Quinn was pretty sure her father would not be coming home that night. Apparently, her having the house all to herself was one of her presents. Too bad David was dealing with a hysterical teenager thanks to Sandi being an ice cold bitch.

 

Other presents included a twin created gift certificate good for six months no teasing about new boyfriend. Quinn thought this was a good gift except by cashing it in she would essentially be telling everybody that she was dating again. Her father got her a bracelet and was taking the kids to DC next weekend for museum hopping along with Monique to give her a weekend to herself. Her mother did not even send a card but considering yesterday's conversation Quinn was not surprise. Jane's gift was actually what Charles gave her. It was a joint present. A first eddition of every single copy of American Splendor along with a movie about the writer. Jane's note said something about Quinn needing to find inspiration in the everyday.

 

Of course, the most unique gift came from David and she wasn't talking about the necklace with her daughters' birth stone. Stuck inside a simple Manila folder was a legal document that said in layman's terms that David will never sue her for using his likeness in her stories nor will he reveal her true identity. She was so shocked that she dropped her cell phone twice when she called to ask him what the hell he was thinking.

 

"How did everything go with Lexis?" Quinn started out after pleasantries not wanting to start yelling at him immediately.

 

"I can't tell you if my work emergency involved Miss Richardson."

 

You already did by sending your present with Charles. He may be a nice person now but he still has the biggest mouth in Lawndale."

 

"He's not covered by doctor patient confidentiality. Did you like the necklace?"

 

"I love the necklace but I'm not that happy with the other present. I told you that I didn't need you to sign a confidentiality agreement. I trust you." Quinn said with a long suffering sigh.

 

"Your mother doesn't. That was to give her peace of mind. If I can give her peace of mind, than maybe you can avoid getting into fights with her at dinner."

 

"So that is your real present for me?" Quinn question.

 

"Pretty much. What type of car does your mother drive?"

 

"I think a silver BMW." She answered confused by the non sequitur.

 

"It's currently in your driveway." Sure enough Quinn walked to her window to see the car in the driveway. She could also see David's car parked on the side of the road a house away."

 

"You're here." Quinn said as she grabbed her bathrobe.

 

"I had to wish you a happy birthday in person. Do you want me to leave?"

 

"No, I think I need you for this. I will talk to you in a minute." Quinn said ending the call. A few minutes later she walked over to her mother's car in her bunny slippers. She was actually crying.

 

"Mom, are you okay?" Quinn asked now that David was standing behind her with a Bouquet of roses.

 

"Happy birthday." Her mother said placing a present into her hand. "I left Eric."


	11. Interlude II: Anatomy of a Heart Attack part one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternative Title: Life Happens When you are Golfing with Your Ex-wife's Asshole New Husband

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another interlude from the perspective of our story's catalyst, (one of them anyway). I was working on this around father's day, so that is where I got the idea to do this from Jake's perspective.

 

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When Jake moved to the sleepy little town of Lawndale, Maryland 13 years ago (or maybe it was 14 years ago, he was never that good at remembering things,) he thought this was where he would spend his golden years. He saw it as the perfect place to retire in 20 years with his wonderful wife as he spent his days playing with his magnificent grandchildren in their beautiful backyard. Helen would make partner and his highly successful consulting firm would be at the point where it could run itself without him being there every day. He had visions of golf games and growing old with Helen by his side. At least, some of that came true. Unfortunately, the part that he wanted the most did not. He was approaching the retirement age as a divorcee.

 

Helen did become partner, even if she had to sell her soul and their marriage to do it. Their relationship was solid again after a painful divorce but it took a while. They would always be in each other's lives because they have two wonderful children together, it was best for all parties involved that they learn to be civil, (how that happened he would explain later). He played lots of golf but now mostly with Helen's ex-husband and Dr. Carol.

 

He used to play with Andrew until he kicked his only son out of the house for being gay. He reminded Jake too much of Mad Dog for his own personal tastes. The fact that Eric Schrecter, the person that stole his wife, was preferable companies said much more about Andrew's character than anything else. Jake was convinced that the man was only friendly to him for the sake of business.

 

Jake's business was stable enough that he no longer needed to suck up to the Andrew Landon's of the world. He owns one of the most successful consulting firms in the greater DC metro area with a dozen employees and a billion dollar plus portfolio. (Thanks to the heart attack, he had to double the size of his staff.) They were responsible for Five Chicks, Axes' House o Piercing, PeopleBook, JL Original Graphics, Feisty IT, and the Ashley Foundation just to name a few. Hell, he even owns his own office building downtown and was a member of the Lawndale Chamber of Commerce. He had everything he ever wanted professionally; he just had to lose everything he had personally to get it.

 

He even had wonderful grandchildren even if he never got to see them in diapers. Maybe someday he will finally get that biological grandchild but he wasn't worried about it. From what he remembered from that time, it was probably for the best Quinn got to skip that. He never liked changing those things.

 

He even managed to have one decent Son in Law. Nikki is a good man and he loves his daughter with all his heart. That was enough for Jake to forgive him for having sex with his little girl, (thanks to recent events, he knows for certain that they do that sort of thing). They met accidentally when Daria literally ran into him on the college green during the first week of her sophomore year and she accidentally picked up his notebook by mistake. They had a pleasant conversation over coffee when she returned the book. At some point, they realized they had a lot in common and made plans to meet up again.

 

A few short months later, his daughter was bringing the young man home for Thanksgiving. Jake's marriage was already gone by that point but they did not want Daria to know until after the holidays so they all pretended to be a happy family one last time. It was silly but he wanted his kids to have one more happy memory.

 

According to Nikki, he knew that he was in love with Daria because she liked him without knowing that he was a pop star. At that stage in his career, most people only liked him because he was a boy band member. Daria didn't know who he was until Black Friday when they went out for pizza and Quinn's friend or former friend Mandy, or was it Sandi, tried to jump him. That was how Daria found out that she was dating the guy that has been on her sister's wall for the last six years.

 

She was mostly upset because she did not realize it; even Quinn knew but kept her mouth shut because he promised to help her find a better job than the school cafeteria. Jake wanted to make her feel better by telling her that Quinn usually can figure out anything. As much as they tried, his younger daughter knew about the fighting and the subsequent filing of divorce without having to be told. The show at Thanksgiving was mostly for Daria's benefit because she already knew.

 

"If it helps at all, I actually like Nikki." He said when he found his 20 year old daughter sulking on the couch that Friday watching a marathon of that crazy TV show she likes Stupid Sick World or was it called Stupid and Sick world. It was obvious she was still mad at Nikki or maybe she was just angry at herself.

 

The real reason why he was down there was the couch was his designated bed for the moment. At that time, sleeping in the same room as Helen was the last thing he wanted to do. He could barely look at her at that point without breaking into tears or his eyes bulging out in anger. He has been staying on Anthony's couch since six weeks earlier, when his life fell apart as he watched helplessly from a Cluster Burger parking lot. He wouldn't be able to be around Helen for a very long time.

 

"You're okay with him lying about who he is but you were freaked out about the age difference?" Daria said looking up from the television with fake annoyance. He didn't overreact that much to the fact that his daughter was dating a man five years older than her. His eye only twitched a little.

 

"I'm always going to be overprotective of you. You are my baby girl, no matter what. You and your sister are the most important thing in the world to me. All I want is for you to be happy. I think Nikki makes you happy." He said sitting next to her on the couch.

 

"I shouldn't have made such a big deal about the age thing. Don't ever let your mom know that I told you this but she is a year older than me. You have always been special and ahead of everyone, so it makes sense that you need to be with someone older than you just so that he can keep up."

 

"You have a valid point, if he wasn't such a liar." Daria said with a sigh.

 

"As for the lying, I don't think he really did." He said squeezing her hand. That was as close to a hug as he could get away with.

 

"Forgetting to mention that you're a pop star is lying in my book." Daria said with another sigh.

 

"It's not like he told you he was working when he was really making out with his boss in the motel across the street from Cluster Burger. Waiting until he was sure he could trust you is not that unforgivable." Jake said as the twitching in his eye increase dramatically. He was trying not to remember what Helen did that led to him filing for divorce. He would never hurt his kids with that information.

 

He quickly took a deep breath to calm himself before speaking again. "When he did it was not that bad in the grand scheme of things. He is still the same person underneath. You just have to ask yourself if you like that person. I know I did not always pay attention, but I thought you always wanted people to like you for who you really are and not because of what you wore or who you hang out with. Don't you think that Nikki wanted the same thing?"

 

"Maybe, but he still should have told me. I'm not like everyone else. I don't find being a boy band member a plus." She said not looking at him.

 

"Would you have gone out for coffee with him if you knew he was the guy that your sister has wanted to marry since she was 12?" He asked.

 

"I choose not to answer that because it will reveal something about me that I do not want to accept. Why are you down here anyway?" She asked, changing the subject.

 

"I wanted a Turkey sandwich." He lied. "I'm so glad your mom let me get a deep fried Turkey this year." Helen let him get whatever he wanted from the caterer to agree to this charade. A deep fried Turkey was the least of what she owed him.

 

"I think she only agreed because you were not the one cooking it." She joked and Jake put on a fake smile.

 

"Is everything going OK with you and mom?" Daria asked as she turned to him.

 

"It is as okay as it ever is." He told her cryptically as he got up from the couch.

 

"I could use a sandwich. I always think better on a full stomach. You know, mom doesn't like Nikki." Daria said getting up from the couch.

 

"I wouldn't trust your mom's judgment on love and romance at the moment." He mumbled under breath before trying to switch the subject. "Look, ruffles potato chips. I love those things." He said pointing to the bag on the table like an excited toddler.

 

"I'll get a bowl." She said walking to the cabinet. She did not ask any more questions about his disintegrating marriage.

 

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By Christmas, Daria and Nikki were back together, just in time for Nikki to help her get through the news of his and Helen's divorce. They decided against going through the charade again for the Christmas holiday because both children already knew. By that summer, Daria was going with Nikki on his group's farewell tour with Quinn spending the summer in France with her brand new boss Lindsey Snow the writer of Jake's favorite post breakup song I Don't Need You. He wouldn't find out until a year later that Lindsey wrote this song about her overbearing stage manager father and the twins' sperm donor.

 

Nikki and Daria were engaged sometime after that but he really can't remember exactly when. He tries not to think of the day that he lost his little girl. Then again, he may not remember because of the vast quantities of alcohol he consumed at that time due to the fact that he found out the first woman he ever loved was marrying the bastard.

 

Jake's only consolation was he knew that Nikki would never leave Daria, even though hundreds of thousands of women (and a few men) were throwing their underwear at him. There would never come a day where his eldest daughter would call him in tears because she caught her husband in bed with someone else. Despite the age difference, he was the perfect complement to her. He was extremely intelligent, very well read although he was a literature major, and skilled at making the snide comments that Jake did not always understand. He was very much like Daria that way.

 

The only thing Jake did not like about his son in law was he is a horrible golfer, unlike Quinn's first husband Jonathan Starr. Despite all of his many shortcomings, Jonathan was a super golfer. Considering what happened, he could accept the fact that the only club Nikki liked involved bacon and grilled chicken. The only thing Jake liked about Jonathan Starr was his golfing skills. The situation was even worse than what happened with Helen because his granddaughter Chloe was the one who caught Jonathan in the act. She actually called Jake in tears. He was on the next plane out to comfort Quinn.

 

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Adultery and broken marriages were not part of his fantasy for him or his youngest daughter but it just happened. The irony of everything was that the success of his business could be traced to the destruction of his marriage. His marriage to Helen was never perfect by any means but things really started to fall apart when Daria went to college.

 

Despite all the scholarships, the remaining tuition at one of the best schools in the country put a financial strain on the couple. This usually led to more arguments, mostly about him not pulling his own financial weight. It got worse when his youngest daughter started spending the night at Lindy's house because Helen no longer saw the need to hold her words to protect the children. When these fights happened, he would go for a drive that would usually end up at some fast Food Restaurant or a bar. He didn't see a difference between drinking and eating his problems away.

 

On one of these outings, he ended up in Oakdale trying to find a bar that he hasn't been kicked out of recently because of his angry Helen rants. He ended up at a hamburger stand instead. That was mostly because the road was insane due to construction and he just pulled into the first place available. It was a horribly decorated place with just four tables and potato sacks by the front door. However, it was the best food that he has had in a long while.

 

"This is the best burger I've ever had." He told the woman who served his food. Her name was Sarah and she owned the restaurant with her four sisters. "It's a shame this place is empty."

 

"The construction on the street has really hit our business hard. Sales are down 40%. They say the expansion should be done in six months but I'm not sure we will survive. I have enough to worry about with my sick mom and her medical bills. I don't need my restaurant to go under." The woman said gravely.

 

"That's too bad. These are really good burgers, they can sell themselves. The fries are great as well. What type of advertising do you guys do?" He asked automatically already thinking of what he could do with a place like this. He realized that there was a lot of potential here.

 

"Nothing really, we never needed to before. Like you said, the food sold itself. Plus we are walking distance from a lot of different businesses and Oakdale State. Unfortunately, with the sidewalks torn apart nobody wants to come here for lunch." That is when Jake outlined his plan for getting sales back up including catchy radio jingles and a tasting at local high schools or universities.

 

"That's great in theory, but I can barely pay the light bill right now let alone pay for a catchy radio Jingle. I definitely cannot afford your services Mr. Jake." Sarah told him.

 

"That's okay I can work for French fries and cheeseburgers right now. You provide me with free food whenever I come by and I will get this business to a point where you can pay me. 10 years from now you're going to have stores all over the country." He said believing that.

 

"You're willing to do that?" She said disbelieving him.

 

"I'd do anything to avoid leftover lasagna Monday. Microwaved lasagna tastes worse the second time around. I'll do anything to avoid it. I even know of a musician who will work for French fries. He can be creative with the proper motivation. He did that Jingle for Happy Herb's Use Cars a while ago. He is the brother of my daughter's best friend." He said knowing that Trent could use the help, even if it was a free lunch and some studio time. Now that Jane was gone, he was getting less support from his parents.

 

"I'll try anything." Sarah said shaking his hand and that was the beginning of a very successful arrangement even if Helen didn't see that at the time. She yelled at him for hours for agreeing to work for cheeseburgers. She just couldn't see the potential that he saw. She also assumed that Sarah was paying him with something else. Supposedly, that's why she slept with Eric months later or at least that was her excuse.

 

After giving away free burgers at the Lawndale high prom and a few strategic frat parties at Lawndale State, sales jumped 70% that summer. Everybody was singing the French fries song by the time he put Quinn on a plane for Los Angeles. Trent was happy to do it because it gave him some much needed exposure. He was even more than happy when he started to get paid in cash instead of cheeseburgers.

 

Unlike his parents, he was trying to help his sister through art school, which meant he was doing guitar lessons on the side and working part time at whatever he could find. Trent didn't want her to end up like him, a talented person writing jingles for hamburgers. Eventually, his help wasn't needed. Daria's then boyfriend fell in love with Jane's artwork and convince the rest of the guys to use a Jackson Pollock like image of the group for the cover of what would become the final Boys or Guys album before the recent reunion. The licensing agreement was enough to pay for tuition, rent, and groceries for a few semesters. The rest of her tuition was paid by designing T shirts and doing the cover work for Nikki's first solo album. Eventually, with Jake's help, they put together an online gallery to sell her work. Two years after college, Jane did not have a single student loan.

 

Unfortunately, things were not going so well for Trent's older sister. She was arrested about the time his marriage fell apart. He doesn't know all the details but Trent said it involved her doing something she shouldn't have to make ends meet. The result was Trent getting custody of his nephew Adrian with the other children being sent to live with their various fathers. He was the most stable family member, thanks to the steady income coming in from the Jingles and doing other studio work. Because Trent was like the son he always wanted Jake tried to help in any way he could, even moving into the Lane house for a while post-divorce. Trent could use the rental income and he could use anything to get his mind off of the divorce. Trent appreciated his advice with his nephew, which was more than he could save for his own children at the moment.

 

Daria wasn't really talking to him at that point because she still blamed him for the divorce. His only consolation was his oldest child was also not on speaking terms with her mother. Quinn was hiding in California using her demanding boss as an excuse not to come see him. At least with Trent, Jake knew he was appreciated. Consequently, by helping Trent, his eldest daughter started speaking to him again.

 

Besides, the arrangement helped him as much as anyone else. He wasn't left with much after Helen's lawyer was done with him. He got to keep his business but that was about it. Part of him blamed the collapse of his marriage on his lack of business success which made him determined to succeed.

 

He threw himself into his work fulltime and did everything from helping Trent start his own music class business to marketing Axles'. Before, he was always so focused on getting the big businesses that he forgot about the small ones. Helping small businesses succeed seemed to be his niche.

 

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His big business break came just two days after his ex-wife invited him to lunch at the best restaurant in town to let him know that she was getting married again less than a year after the divorce. He spent that evening in the emergency room with chest pains.

 

Nikki was in the DC area for a charity event and he stopped by for lunch. Actually, he was in town to ask for his oldest daughter's hand in marriage but Jake likes to forget about that. Unfortunately, Nikki decided to take him to the same restaurant where his ex-wife ripped out his heart. Once the hyperventilating stopped, Jake suggested that they go to Five Chicks instead because Sarah's chocolate milkshake was the only thing that could make him feel better.

 

"I'm sorry Mr. M. I had no idea that Ms. Barksdale is getting remarried or that she told you in that restaurant. Daria did not mention that her mom was getting married again." Nikki apologized again once they had their food.

 

"Daria doesn't know yet. Helen wants to wait until after she visits the girls for Christmas." Jake said bitterly.

 

"I take it Daria's not going to be happy?" Nikki asked as he ate a French fry.

 

"Not at all, she is still mad at both of us for not making it work." He said taking a drink of his milkshake. It only calmed him slightly.

 

"I'm so sorry again. If I had known we would have gone somewhere else." He apologized for the 30th time.

 

"It's fine. I like the food here better anyway." He said with a smile trying to reassure the young man.

 

"The fries are so good, I wish this was a chain restaurant so they would have one in Boston." He said with said French fries and his mouth.

 

"There could be someday. They are already planning on opening a new location in Cranberry Commons but we are just looking for new investors at this point." He said before explaining about how he knows all this.

 

"I may be interested in investing for fries this good but you'll need to set up a meeting with my business manager." Nikki explained.

 

"I didn't tell you that so I could sell you something." Jake said quickly knowing how Nikki hates for people to take advantage of him. His first manager did enough of that in more ways than one.

 

"I know. You are a lot like your daughter. You never expect anything from me, that's why I like you. I've been thinking about diversifying my holdings anyway."

 

"You can't be a teen idol forever." Jake said offhandedly.

 

"You're right about that. I don't even think Boys or Guys will do another album. We're just in different places. That's why I continued on with grad school although the label wants me to do a solo album."

 

"That's not a bad idea. I would buy your solo record."

 

"Good to know. I really need to think about the future. I have to be able to provide for my family someday in any circumstance. I have heard too many teen idol horror stories." Nikki said stoically.

 

"Do you want that family to be with Daria?" Jake asked not sure what he wanted the answer to be but he feels his chest getting very tight.

 

"I love your daughter more than anything in the universe. There is no one else like her. There is no one else that sees me as a real person and not just Nikki Bryant. I know I want to spend the rest of my life with her." He said pulling a ring box out of his pocket.

 

"You're planning on proposing?" He asked as he tried not to look at the ring.

 

"Would you let me?" Nikki actually asked for his permission to marry his daughter. Now that bastard Jonathan did no such thing and that should have been the very first clue that he was bad news.

 

"You know she is going to kill you for asking me first?" He joked.

 

"I know, but I respect you sir. You were the one who convinced her to take my phone calls after she found out about my other life. I owe you this." He said with a smile.

 

"You have my permission but don't tell her that." Jake said returning that smile.

 

"Of course, sir."

 

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Two days after that he received the excited (for her) phone call from Daria telling him that she was getting married. It broke his heart but he knew that Nikki was a good man. It helped ease his pain when his future son in law invested in Five Chicks to become a 20% owner two weeks later. It also helped that by merely mentioning the restaurant in an interview sales went up 400%.

 

By the time he walked his little girl down the aisle, his relationship with Daria was back to where it was pre divorce. No, actually it was better. That was mostly because he supported his daughter's marriage when Helen was against her getting married so young. Her only consolation was a wedding that was more expensive than both of Erin's combined and that it made her sister miserable. The whole experience made him finally okay with no longer being with Helen. He realized it was time for him to make a new life for himself.

 

Moving on, meant being dragged to every single bar in Maryland and DC by Anthony and some of his other friends. Even Trent tried to help but the thought of dating anyone just slightly older than his own children made him a little nauseous. He wasn't much better at dating than he was in the sixties. It was even harder now that he was a 50 something divorcee. He quickly learned that angry rants about Helen would most likely result in pity sex but not a second date. However, he did get several new clients out of this including the Paradise Grill, Match_ me , and the Lawndale Brewing Company, so it wasn't a total loss.

 

The other part of moving on was getting his relationship with his youngest daughter back on track or maybe get it on track to begin with. Let's be honest, he was never that involved of a father and maybe that's why he lost everything. After his marriage fell apart, he realized how much he didn't pay attention to either child.

 

Getting his relationship with Quinn back on track began with spending Christmas in Malibu getting to know his daughter's new life. He was always worried about Quinn being so far away and being around somebody with Lindsey Snow's reputation, despite the fact that Quinn made as much money as Helen, if not more. Let's be honest, he did a lot of drugs in college and was worried about Quinn getting into the same thing.

 

His fears went away after he met Lindsey and saw that his baby girl was the responsible one. Lindsey Snow was a good person but she had a lot of demons and not all of them were drugs. Her biggest problem was she had her own Mad Dog, in the form of her mother and father who tried to control every aspect of her life and career. They are the ones who forced her into a relationship with her producer to make her more marketable. They were afraid little girls in Middle America wouldn't buy the records of a lesbian. They were the ones who introduced her to the hard partying lifestyle. When she was sober, Lindsey was a very intelligent woman with good business sense. A sober Lindsey was one person you could not cross. As long as she was high, she could easily be controlled. It was enough to make him wonder if she was introduced to drugs in the first place because of that.

 

Despite everything, she did love her daughters, that is why she kept trying to do better. They seem to be her first priority whenever drugs were not. She hired Quinn to be there for the children when she couldn't be. Quinn was good at that. She has always been good with children but her connection with Lindsey's daughters seems like something completely different. Maybe he should have known that someday they would become his grandchildren.

 

He saw a lot of Daria and Quinn in the little girls at that age, except they was more physical violence. Instantly, they treated him like the grandfather they always wanted forcing him to read bedtime stories and such. By the time she hired Quinn, Lindsey had already forced many of her leeches out of her life, including her parents. He was just glad someone wanted him, even if Quinn was still mad about the divorce.

 

The girls liked him so much that Lindsey flew him out to L.A. almost once a month. She thought it was best if the girls had a good male role model around. She treated him to a trip to Europe the week that Helen got married. Only now, he realizes that Lindsey most likely scheduled several appearances out of the country so Quinn wouldn't have to go to her mother's wedding. Quinn was more hurt by the marriage then he was. The only thing he could do to make his daughter feel better was to show her that his ex getting remarried did not destroy him. In reality, it gave him the fire he needed to reach his true potential. He left Europe with several new investors for his various projects.

 

All the time at the Snow mansion helped him reconnect with Quinn but their relationship really didn't get better until one very tragic moment. A part of him knew someday one of Quinn's friends would die unexpectedly but he didn't think it would be the quiet girl who always asked him if she looked fat in whatever she was wearing. Maybe that was a clue that she would die the way that she did. He always thought it would be Lindsey who would go first. He lost a lot of friends during his convent days to heroin and cocaine and he saw her going down that path no matter how many times she went to rehab. Although in her case, the drugs were a symptom of a more serious problem.

 

So he was not expecting a sobbing phone call from Tiffany's father asking him to get a hold of Quinn to let her know that Tiffany was dead. Quinn fell down to the ground when she was told, according to a slightly tipsy Lindsey. (Apparently, rehab attempt number 64 was already falling apart by that point due to her ex forgetting the twins' birthday again.) He believed her when he picked up Quinn from the Airport and she couldn't stop crying.

 

She stayed with him at his new apartment a few blocks away from his new offices downtown. By that point he was ready to live on his own again and Trent was doing well with his own music lesson business and doing advertising jingles, even If Mystic Spiral was on its last legs by that point, that he didn't need his help anymore. (He will get to why Mystic Spiral fell apart later. That's a complicated story.)

 

That night he found Quinn crying on his couch watching the video footage from the magic show they did together junior year. "You know she almost refused to wear that outfit." Quinn said looking up from the screen as tears streaked down her face. "She thought it made her look puffy." Quinn said with a bitter laugh. "She was fucking perfect. I was always jealous of how flawless her skin was. Why did she do this to herself?" She asked and he was unsure how to answer.

 

"How about a snack?" He asked after a few moments of silence. "I always feel better after eating. I think there's still some food left over from what Sarah sent." If he thought Sarah's burgers were great, her macaroni casserole was 10 times better. She sent over a batch when she found out about what happened. He was going to have to convince her to add that to the menu before the next store opens. At that point, they were at six stores with five more on the way in the next six months. Having Nikki Bryant as an investor was very good for business.

 

"I'm not hungry. Maybe tomorrow after the funeral we can go to Oakdale for burgers and fries." She said softly.

 

"That's a good idea. Sarah really wants to meet you." He said absently.

 

"Sarah's not your girlfriend? I really can't take surprises right now." He almost wanted to laugh at that. Quinn is a lot more like her mother than she would like to admit to sometimes. Part of him wanted to tell her that it was more likely for Sarah to date Lindsey, despite his massive crush on her but he said nothing. Besides, even if he was her type he would never have a chance with a woman like her. They all want something more than what he could provide, Helen taught him that. He was better off with the occasional one night stand after Anthony and Trent forced him to go out. Sex he could do, relationships not so much.

 

"Sarah is a client and friend, but nothing more than that. I don't know if you realize this but unlike your mother it takes me a little longer to recover. It has not been long enough for me to really move on yet. Maybe by the time my grandchildren graduate from high school, I will be ready." He joked.

 

"I'll just be happy if you're still around. Apparently, there are a lot of things that I don't realize. How the hell did I not notice that Tiffany was starving herself? I mean she's always had problems with body image even if she is- was skinnier than I am. I just didn't think it was…" Quinn broke off sobbing again. The only thing he could do was put an arm around her.

 

"Sometimes we only see things after the fact. I didn't realize that things had gotten so bad between me and your mother until it was over. Only in hindsight, I can now see everything that went wrong. There's no point trying to fix something that can't be changed." There was so much he wished he could change. It wasn't just his now ex-wife that he ignored. He was oblivious about both of his children. He could not even remember that Daria was a writing major and Quinn was a business major unless his assistant Marianne put it on his calendar. (Some would think that it was petty that he hired his wife's former assistant after she quit so she could have a job with stable hours but she really was the most qualified.)

 

If Quinn and Daria had something like anorexia or bulimia he would have missed it entirely. He didn't even know about his oldest daughter's inappropriate crush on Trent until his pseudo son told him about it years later. He was not even sure if his younger daughter was heterosexual. She dated guys but she didn't even kiss until the 15th date and no one got that far much to his pleasure. The only guy that Quinn ever seemed really interested in was her tutor David. Quinn has no idea that he arrived home early that day because of a meeting that went badly and heard the entire conversation. He wanted to make her feel better but he wasn't sure how, so he did nothing.

 

Quinn was always a lot closer to her fashion friends than anyone else. Then there was her close relationship with Lindsey and all those sleepovers in high school with Lindy. However, he knew nothing conclusively because he didn't have the type of relationship with Quinn where she would actually talk to him about her love life.

 

He thought about how miserable Mr. Blum-Deckler sounded when he called. How would he cope if it was his daughter who died because he wasn't paying attention? However, he knew better than to play the ‘what if’ game. He learned that after the first Christmas at military school.

 

"I wish I could change it." She said with a sad expression. Part of him wished he could change a lot of things too. He wished he could go back to the moment when he held his little girl for the first time knowing what he knew now. There are so many things he would do differently but then he wouldn't be here.

 

"I know." He said as he held onto her more tightly.

 

"The only thing we can do is try harder next time." He said stroking her hair. Eventually, she did fall asleep. It was then he resolved to do better.

 

XXX

 

He did do better. He made more time for his daughters despite his business actually being successful for once. That was the main reason why he started hiring junior associates and some interns. With several universities in the area, it wasn't that hard. He went up to Boston to see Daria's first student production. It was some weird experimental play about a witch and knight playing cards. He didn't get it but everyone thought it was great. He was also there for her first off Broadway production about a big head of football player who haunted his old high school. The guy reminded him a lot of Eric.

 

He even attended one of his son-in-laws concerts. His musical stylings were much more palatable from the backstage lounge then when he had to bring Quinn and her giggly friends to his concerts when she was 13. Although, really nobody wanted to hear their son in-laws sing songs about bringing sexy back or anything else of a sexual nature. Even though his daughter was married, he just didn't want to think about that.

 

Quinn was easier; it mostly consisted of helping her take the twins to various amusement Parks around the world. He enjoyed anything that involves candy and hot dogs. He also cheered the loudest at her graduation. He was there a lot anyway trying to help Lindsey reinvent her career after a successful stint in rehab. She trusted him. He suggested a fashion line but she ended up going with a-tell all book but in the end it worked out, sort of, for Quinn anyway. It was also a way for Lindsey to get back at her parents. The world finally found out what a cruel man her dad was, even if it was too late for Lindsey.

 

At that point, the only thing he really needed to fix was his relationship with Helen. Even though the girls were adults, it wasn't good for them to have to split holidays and everything else between the two because he couldn't be civil. However, it was not until the arrival of the third girl that he considers being a grandchild that things got better.

 

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He was in his office talking to Daria's old classmate Charles about coming up with funding for a tech startup. Apparently, Charles Sr. was so against his son going against him by going into business for himself that he convinced every bank around not to give his son a lone despite the solid business plan for Feisty. It was a good plan and he knew from personal experience there was a market for it. Hell, he was already willing to hire Charles to run his website after reading it.

 

"I'm not going to let this thing fall apart, despite what my father wants. He says that the only way I'll be able to get a loan in this town is to let my Stacy 'service him'. He should have just said give him a blow job, it would have been less insulting." Charles said darkly as he crushed the can of soda in his hand.

 

"What was your response?" Jake asked as his right eye started to twitch. Stacy was the same age as Quinn, that was just disturbing.

 

"I told him to go fuck himself. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a father anymore. It's not that big of a loss, because I'm not sure if I ever had one in the first place. Stacy told me about what you did for a living and I thought maybe you could help." He told Jake, becoming slightly calmer by the end.

 

"That alone makes me want to help you. You already have your first client in me. Quinn says my website is absolutely ugly and I need all the help I can get, or maybe that was Chloe. There is potential here. I do have some experience with tech startups. I also have some ideas for possible investors. However, do you have any startup capital yourself?" Both Nikki and Lindsay were looking for more Tech Investments after their success with People Book and Banana Computer. Maybe they would be willing.

 

"I have at least a hundred thousand dollars, maybe more, tied up in my comic book collection and maybe another twenty thousand dollars in other collectibles but I need to find a decent buyer to get that kind of money out of it. I'm just glad I had the good sense not to leave my collections at my father's house when I went to college; otherwise, I wouldn't have a damn thing. He would have burned everything just to fuck with me." It was at that moment, Jake remembered Mad dog burning his baseball cards because he thought having them made Jake week. Even if he had to invest some of his own money, Jake would help.

 

"I'm willing to liquidate some of it if I have to." Jake was just about to tell him that one of his son in-law's former bandmates was an avid comic book collector who would buy anything but his assistant walked into the room before he could.

 

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Lane is here to see you. He says that it's an emergency." This worried him. Trent was so late back that nothing was an emergency to him, not even his car catching on fire with him inside. If he considered anything an emergency, then it must be something bad.

 

"I'm sorry Mr. Ruttheimer but we will need to finish at another time. I think I have an idea of how we can get you the startup capital that you need without going into debt or doing anything unsavory. We can meet Friday to discuss the details." Jake said getting up to escort Charles out of his office.

 

"Thank you for all your assistance Mr. M. I can see where Daria gets her intelligence from." Charles said smoothly right as Trent walked in.

 

"Is everything okay? Is it Jane or Daria?" He asked worriedly as soon as the door was close.

 

"Their fine, everyone else is fine too. It's something else. I had a meeting last night with the new principle at Lawndale high. It turns out I met her eight years ago when Mystic Spiral was playing a gig at University of Maryland. She was a beautiful smart woman, very witty and engaging. In hindsight, reminded me a lot of Daria except this time I was the younger one." He said with his trademark laugh/cough. "Things went well and we ended up in one of the empty bedrooms after the set." Trent said embarrassed. Jake didn't care as long as Trent was not having sex with his daughter. He needed to live vicariously through someone. With things going so well with the business, he hasn't had the time for bar hopping recently.

 

"I have a good idea of what happened. I was young once." Jake said quickly trying not to smile.

 

"I don't think you do." He said as he reached in his jeans pocket and pulled out a picture of a light skin girl about the same age as the twins with curly hair but with eyes that looked exactly like the man in front of him. "This is my daughter Madison. I just found out last night."

 

"I can understand why this is an emergency." Jake said as he slowly sat back down in his chair, praying to every deity he could think of that it was not his daughter that got knocked up.

 

"That's not the worst of it. When Mo found out she was pregnant she knew that I was the only possibility and tried to get a hold of me. She ended up tracking down Jesse instead. He blew her off and never told me about it. When I asked him why, I found out that my so-called best friend didn't want me distracted with a child." Trent said scowling and Jake felt his right eye start to bulge a little bit. If someone kept his children from him for such a ridiculous reason he would kill them.

 

"Would you have left the group if you would have known?" Jake asked.

 

"I practically left after I had to start taking care of my nephew. I have a music lesson business and lots of studio work, as well as, taking college classes online too get my teaching certificate. I am a part of the system now. I had no choice. I saw what Summer went through and I would not put anyone through that. Fuck, I have lost so much time." Trent said on the verge of tears. Jake has never seen the laid back man like this before.

 

"You can't change the past. It was not your fault. You need to focus on what you're going to do next." He said trying to reassure the young man

 

"I'm not sure what I want to do next. Monique said she would let me see Madison whenever I wanted but Nikki suggested I get a lawyer anyway and put the custody arrangement in writing." After his own problems with his family, Nikki was a firm believer in the importance of a contract. "Daria suggested that I talk to Mrs. Barksdale-Schrecter. I'm having lunch with her in half an hour or whatever." Trent told him still in a daze. Jake had a feeling that his ex-wife was probably already waiting for Trent in the restaurant.

 

"That's not a bad idea. Even if Monique may be amenable to shared custody, others in her family may not be. If something happens to her, it would be best to have it in writing. You know how complicated things can get. Remember what happened after Summer went to jail? That was messy. Helen may not be a family lawyer but she knows her stuff and would know the best person to help you." Jake said.

 

"I know that you're right. I still don't want to go alone. You are the only friend I have that I'm actually speaking to at the moment that is not currently in New York. I know you don't like your ex-wife, but can you go with me?" Trent asked. Jake was tempted to tell him that he did not hate his ex-wife but rather it was the complete opposite and that was why he hated being around her. However, he was interrupted before he could.

 

"You're like the father I wish I had growing up. At least, you're here." Trent said sadly and Jake understood where he was coming from.

 

"Sure, I can come. Robbie can take my 2:00." He said referring to one of his junior employees.

 

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Surprisingly, that lunch went well even if Helen was surprised that he was there. She stated that from a legal standpoint the most important thing was to establish him legally as Madison's father in case something happened. However, they both agreed from a personal standpoint that the most important thing was for him to establish a relationship with his daughter. Trent said he would have lots of time to do that since he just quit Mystic Spiral for good. It was for the best considering what happened.

 

"You're very protective of him." Helen remarked as they waited for Trent to come from the bathroom after a very productive meeting. Helen already had several lawyers in mind that could help Trent on his salary, even if Daria offered to pay.

 

"I think of him as the son I never had. One of them anyway, we have Nikki now." Jake said thinking of Nikki as his other son. He needed a decent father figure since his was an unapologetic alcoholic, who has never tried to get better.

 

"That was not my fault. You know that Quinn was a very tough pregnancy. I couldn't go through that again during law school. Then afterwards, it didn't make sense for me to take time off when I was the one bringing the most into the household." Helen said repeating an excuse he heard 1000 times during their marriage. She neglected to mention their lost child.

 

"Helen we haven't been married for over four years. There's no point in arguing about this now." Jake said tired of his ex-wife's usual defensiveness

 

"I guess there isn't." Helen said with a sigh as she took another quick drink of her wine.

 

"We have two wonderful daughters together and therefore, we're going to be connected for the rest of our lives. We might as well be able to get along. I don't know if I want to keep doing separate Thanksgivings for the next 30 years." Jake suggested.

 

"You're right. It would be best for the girls." Helen said with a sigh. "Also for our future grandchildren if we were civil." That part made Jake slightly uncomfortable. Even though his oldest daughter was married, he really did not want to think about that.

 

"Let's just hope we don't get any the way Trent did." Jake said as he raised his glass thinking maybe things were going to get better.

 

That lunch was just the beginning of reestablishing a friendship with his ex-wife. Actually, reestablish may not be the right word. He was starting to wonder if they ever had a friendship before in the first place. Maybe that's why everything really did fall apart. The foundation just wasn't there. He was a lot closer now to Helen than he was during their actual marriage. They certainly did talk more now that sex in the kitchen was no longer an option. Only in hindsight does he realize that they used physical intimacy as a means to avoid emotional intimacy. Now, they had no choice but to talk to one another.

 

Things worked out for Trent in the end regarding his daughter, sort of. Trent finished up college even if it took six years and became a music teacher at Lawndale High. He and Monique were able to successfully co-parent and eventually they fell in love with each other. You will have to ask Madison how that came about. Let's just say that Jake is not surprised that she instantly bonded with Bianca. They were both very sneaky in nature. Trent even managed to be on speaking terms with his former band mates but again you'll have to ask Madison about that. That child was scary.

 

Unfortunately, Jake and Helen received their first two legal grandchildren in a much worse way then accidental pregnancy.

 

That's a story for another time because he needs a nap now.


	12. Interlude II: Anatomy of a Heart Attack part two

Grandchildren were a major part of Jake's original Lawndale fantasy. Of course, he was envisioning car seats and more diaper changing, instead of dealing with emotionally guarded preteens. However, he wouldn't trade the girls for anything he just wished the circumstances would have been different.

He found out about Lindsey's death during a business lunch with Sarah and her Sister Ruth. At that point, Five Chicks had 30 restaurants on the East Coast and were branching out into franchising. This lunch was to entice new people into the business. The meeting took place at the Lawndale State location to show how popular the restaurant was with college kids. He was in the middle of his presentation when his attention was drawn to one of the TVs in the restaurant. A newscaster came on reporting the possible death of Lindsey Snow at the hands of party girl socialite, sex tape aficionado, and hotel heiress Astoria Amsterdam. It was a hit and run. The whole thing was caught on security camera and there was a massive manhunt for the socialite underway. At the time, he didn't hear a word of that.

He felt dizzy and numb at the same time. The whole thing almost reminded him of his heart attack. It got worse when they mentioned that an unnamed employee was also killed. His chest was tightening quickly and the room started to spin around. He was absolutely terrified that it was Quinn. What would he do If his baby girl was dead? He couldn't breathe.

Sarah quickly handed him a glass of water and an aspirin as she explained to the others that Quinn worked as Lindsey Snow's assistant. One of the investors was already calling 911 by the time Jake's phone started vibrating. Sarah picked up because he was too busy hyperventilating by that point.

"Jake, it's Quinn. She's okay." Sarah said quickly handing him the phone.

"Princess?" He whispered into the phone as Sarah held it to his ear.

"I'm okay daddy." He exhaled at the sound of her voice never feeling so happy before. "I was with the girls. Lindsey went out for a jog this morning and she didn't come back. I found her body. She wasn't breathing. There was so much blood, oh god." That's when Quinn broke down in sobs. The rest of the conversation served the purpose of calming both of them down.

Everything that happened was just a severe panic attack or at least that was what the EMT told him. He refused to go to the hospital for observations. His baby girl needed him. He was on the first plane to Los Angeles after that. It was good to be needed. 

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He didn't go to the funeral mostly because Quinn was terrified that he would push Mr. Snow out a window. That man had no reason to call himself a father. Jake could not stand that evil man. He was a monster. He did punch him at the will reading when Mr. Snow started cursing over the fact that his grandchildren received almost everything and said grandchildren would not be going to him. (He only wanted the girls for the money.) The only thing she left her father were her many awards, saying that she knew that was the only thing her father ever wanted from her. (In comparison, she left Jake a boat, a few things from her car collection and her golf clubs as well as her 3% stake in People Book and some Banana stock.) Mr. Snow was even more furious to find out that Lindsey hired the best child custody lawyer in the country to make sure that Quinn would get the girls no matter what.

Being around Lindsey's fake friends also did very little for his heart or blood pressure. None of them really knew her. They were as bad as her father, except for the fact that Lindsey never realized they were leeches during the course of her life. Nikki actually knew her better than 90% of the people there shedding fake tears for the cameras. Ten months later, many of the same people will be supporting Astoria at her trial and cheering on when she receives the ultimate slap on the wrist of a suspended sentence of six months with two years of community service and mandatory drug counseling.

Quinn didn't want him to cause a scene at the funeral. It was best that he say his goodbyes in private and be there for the twins for the parts of the day that would be too much for them. He decided to honor Lindsey at her favorite country club with 18 holes in her honor. (Lindsey was an excellent golfer and they spent a lot of time on the links together.)

He stayed out of the house that day and only returned in time to see his daughter reading the girls a bedtime story. They were both in Quinn's bedroom as neither child wanted to sleep alone. They seem so broken and Quinn seemed to be the only thing holding the two together. Even though he was sure his father never loved him, the funeral was hard on Jake and he was an adult. How much worse would it be to deal with the death of a parent that actually loved you as a child?

"You're good with them." Jake said quietly as he sat down on the couch in the bedroom suite once the story was done. Quinn was still in bed with both twins sleeping on top of her.

"I'll try but I wonder if that's enough. Do you think I'm ready to be a mom fulltime?" She asked her father.

"I don't think anybody is ever prepared to become a parent, even if you have nine months to get ready. I know I wasn't. Someday, I have to tell you what happened at the hospital with the car seat when I went to pick up your sister. I doubt you'll be any worse than I was and you and your sister turned out perfectly fine." He said in a reassuring voice.

"You are a good dad." Quinn said with a genuine smile.

"Sometimes," he said sitting down next to her.

"You were there and mostly sober. You didn't do any of the stupid stuff Lindsey's dad did to her. You drove me to boy band concerts and put up with my shoe habit. You're a good dad." Quinn told him.

"It's good to hear that." He answered simply.

"You really think I can do this? Mom doesn't." Jake really is not surprised. Helen doesn't believe that anybody's capable of anything most of the time.

"I think your mom is just worried about becoming a grandmother before 50." He said joking trying to relieve the tension.

"I thought mom was already over 50." Quinn said laughing.

"Yes, but don't tell her you know that." He laughed as well. They both needed it.

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The custody battle was long and drawn out, even if all parties involved knew that the Snow family were only challenging Quinn for the trust fund that came with both children. Helen came around to the idea when she saw Quinn was willing to fight for both girls. In the end, writing the tell all book turned out to be a very good thing for Lindsey. There were dozens of audio files that chronicled Lindsey's rough childhood that contained everything from emotional abuse to accusations of sexual molestation. No judge in his or her right mind would give Mr. Snow custody of two young girls. Before her 24th birthday, Quinn was the adoptive mother of two wonderful children and Jake could not be happier.

Motherhood was something Quinn was a natural at, maybe because she has already had years of practice. It probably helped that she had a job where she could be home almost all the time. He had no idea that Quinn enjoyed writing so much. That was always Daria's thing. Then he remembered Quinn was always good at coming up with creative excuses of why she was late or anything else. It was obvious to him that she was a natural storyteller. She did a really good job writing the biography.

He did read all her books but only the edited for content versions. Although, even he knew Tutor for the Heart was based on what happened to Quinn in high school. He was just glad he was around to know what really happened. He always assumed for his daughter to be able to write like that she most likely did all those things. He just did not want to think about that. He also knew that Quinn was still very mad at Helen for the divorce. There were little things from her life that she put into her stories that told him this. Jake was personally happy that he could pick up on some of them, he wasn't sure that he would have just a few years ago.

Unfortunately, his mother also read Quinn's work and obviously couldn't see the brilliance of it. Even if the subject matter made him slightly uncomfortable, he was still proud of her. His mother was not. She referred to Quinn's writing as housewife pornography in public and said much worse things in private. She even favored Daria because she married a respectable young man. No one had the heart to tell her about Daria's real career. He really didn't want to give his mother another reason to be disappointed.

The last thing he ever said to his mother was, "I don't care what Quinn does for a living as long as she's happy. Writing makes her happy and she is quite good at it, even if it is not something you like. Unlike you, I want my children to succeed." His mother tried to interrupt him but Jake wouldn't let her.

"Don't even bother arguing because we both know the truth. Until you can respect her, I don't want you in my house-condo." He said in anger and she just spluttered as she left. He never heard from her again because she died three months later. However, he doesn't regret standing up for Quinn. Quinn was always more like him and that's why he had to defend her.

Maybe, Quinn was too much like him. Maybe, that's why her marriage did not work out. Even if Quinn always said otherwise, he always wondered if there was something going on beyond friendship between Lindsey and her. If it was not sexual, then it had to be a sister like bond. Losing Lindsey so soon, after losing Tiffany, was just hard on her. It was obvious in his mind that Jonathan Starr was a rebound relationship. He was never right for Quinn. He always seemed more interested in having Melody Powers as arm candy than being there for Quinn. He reminded Jake a lot of Eric. They were both narcissistic dicks who only cared about their selves and getting off than their respective partner.

Jonathan was always making snide comments about Quinn and her work behind her back. He even suggested sending the girls to military school because he did not want to share his future wife with those 'brats' that she inherited. He never told Quinn about this conversation but maybe he should have. That would have saved her a lot of heartbreak.

He tried to talk her out of the wedding but it really didn't work. Quinn is a lot more stubborn than anyone else could ever give her credit for. It must come from Helen. Even though Jake was expecting the phone call letting him know what a bastard his son in law truly was, he wasn't expecting it so soon. Nikki's flaky ex-girlfriend Kim Brittany had marriages that lasted longer.

Of course, he was never expecting to get that phone call from Chloe. His granddaughter was hysterical and in tears as she told him the entire thing. She was more afraid to tell Quinn than anything else. However, he was able to convince her it was for the best.

Jake was ready to kill. If he ever ran into Jonathan Starr again, outside of the courtroom, he was a dead man. Again, within hours he was on his way to Los Angeles to give his daughter a shoulder to cry on. He knew exactly what she was going through. Unfortunately, Quinn easily figured out precisely why he knew exactly what she was going through.

"I knew she was screwing Eric before the divorce. He was always calling like every minute just like the bitch that Jonathan was screwing. That was suspicious right there. Even Lindsey wasn't that needy and she had a severe drug problem." Quinn said screaming as she paced back and forth in the room that she once shared with Jonathan. You could barely tell it was a bedroom anymore with all the broken furniture and torn up comforters scattered around the space.

"I didn't say that." He said quickly. He promised himself a long time ago that the children would never know the true story. There was no point in him badmouthing his former wife.

"You did not have to tell me directly dad. I've always known. There were just so many signs. I'm just surprised I missed all those signs with my own bastard husband. I just want to know how you ever got over it? How could you ever forgive her?" She asked with sad eyes.

"A lot of time and I had good friends that were there for me. Fortunately, you have a lot of those. Lindy has been camped out in your guestroom since it happened. I've discovered in the last few years that if I want to stave off another heart attack, I have to let go of my anger."

"That makes sense." Quinn said with a sad smile.

"As for why I forgave her, I did it for me. I have more important things to concern myself with than hating her." He said honestly. He doubted he would be as successful as he was now if he held on to the blinding anger that he felt in that Cluster Burger parking lot years ago.  
"I don't know if I will ever be able to stop hating Jonathan. How could he betray me like that? He slept with her in our bed. What did I do wrong?" Quinn said as she sat down on the floor of the destroyed bedroom.

"I don't know why stuff like this happens. Someday, you will be able to let go but you have to stop blaming yourself for what happened first. You did nothing wrong. Jonathan is the one with problems, not you. He didn't deserve you. It is my deepest hope that someday, you'll find someone who does. One day, you'll find something or someone that will be worth letting go of that anger for." He said kissing her on the forehead. He hopes she finds that happiness because he hasn't yet and he is sure he never will.

"I hope you're right." Quinn said finally getting up from the floor.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jake spent several months helping Quinn get back to being Quinn again. He read a lot of rough drafts of her stories in that time but he realized that writing was how she was going to get through this. His coping mechanism was very similar, although, in his case it was finding new businesses to make better.

For a while, he considered opening an office in Malibu. He had enough clients on the West Coast to make it very practical but in the end he decided it was best to return to Maryland. He missed life in Lawndale too much. Clients like Sarah would not be happy with the move. He also likes his monthly dinners with Jane, weeknights at Trent's House, and bar hopping with Anthony. So what if he didn't have a significant other, he was anything but alone. He had no idea that something drastic will occur that will result in Quinn moving their instead.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In hindsight, Jake finds it highly ironic that he survived the entire Jonathan incident without major chest pains but ended up in the hospital for weeks when he finds out that his wife's marriage is about to go to hell or maybe it was already in hell. Sometimes, Jake wonders why he keeps playing golf with Eric because he's such a bastard but he knows it's because Helen asked him to. In addition, Dr. Carol and his partner Dr. Nicholson were good people. Eric really didn't have that many friends at the club or anywhere else for that matter.

The doctors only played golf with Eric because he was Dr. Carol's cousin by marriage. In an effort to keep up his good relationship with his ex-wife he wasn't going to tell her that her husband had no friends because he was a complete bastard. Besides, Helen was too stubborn to listen to him anyway. She always has been.

Jake really wished she would lose that stubbornness when Eric started talking about his desire to screw his assistant Brooke. The girl was Quinn's age. It was disgusting just to hear him talk about her augmented breasts in such graphic detail. Fortunately, she was too loyal to Helen for all her work during the botch plastic surgery case to betray her like that. Brooke was a good girl with a head on her shoulders.

This meant that Eric moved on to the interns instead. He boasted about screwing some girl barely three years older than the twins when Jake was supposedly out of listening distance getting an omelet from the brunch buffet at the club. He was shaking in rage by the time Eric started comparing his mistress and his wife sometime around the first hole. Even the liquor infused orange juice did little to calm his nerves.

His chest tightened but he didn't say anything. It was his own fault for not taking his medication because he hated his new doctor. Maybe he should have gone to Dr. Carol instead of the guy down the street from his office. However, he didn't want Helen to press the doctor for information and he knew she would. Apparently, Dr. Carol noticed everything including this sweating. There were some other comments that Eric made about his wife but he doesn't remember specifics.

Actually, he does not remember anything else until he wakes up at LMC with Daria's high school friend standing over his bed in a white Doctor's coat. Apparently, he was Jake's new cardiologist, because despite their friendship, Dr. Carol refuses to deal with Helen long-term after she apparently terrorized the staff the moment she found out about him being in the hospital. Jake vaguely remembers Helen screaming at someone. He felt old having a doctor who went to high school with his daughter. He also remembers Quinn crying at some point but he was too drugged to really remember anything specific. He wondered if the girls were there but he was sure they wouldn't let them in unless he really was dying. Maybe it was a good sign they were not there.

The next thing he really remembers clearly is Daria speaking. That was strange because his oldest daughter was currently in Asia with Nikki on the boy band reunion tour. He wasn't expecting to see her until sometime this summer.

"Of course, you choose now to have a heart attack." She said with actual anger. This worried him because her voice a rarely had inflection.

"Just because you helped Five Chicks become the fastest growing burger chain in North America doesn't mean you have to be their number one customer." Daria said returning to her normal sarcasm. He wanted to mention something about mostly eating Cluster Burger (not the one where he caught Helen and Eric) now because Sarah had a new significant other but he was still too groggy and his throat felt scratchy. He assumed that at some point he had a tube down his throat. He vaguely remembers something like that. 

"I would actually like you to be around long enough to see your new grand baby." 'What are you talking about?' Jake asked in his head but he still didn't say anything.

"Just before I found out about your latest heart attack, I found out I am pregnant. Apparently, birth control and major time differences don't work very well together. I'm a little nervous and I need to talk to my dad. If you can wake up that would be good. Trent can only give so much good advice about surprise children." She joked nervously but Jake was already livid.

"That bastard got you pregnant. I'm going to kill him." He screamed causing alarms to go off.

"Of course, that's what wakes you up." Daria said with a smile just as the room was filled with doctors.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recovering from a heart attack was a lot harder the second time around. Life now involved lots of pills and surgery. His days are filled with salmon burgers and his nights involved lots of grilled vegetables. He missed French fries and Mystic barbecue. Then there was a fact she was constantly being baby sat by various people including his granddaughters and eventually Quinn's wonderful assistant Kat. There were also lots of doctors' visits and vast amounts of heart medication. The only thing that made it tolerable was Dr. Mike was a cool guy and believed in doing things in moderation. He even said that Jake could have a burger occasionally.

He was not allowed back to work until April and he hated leaving Robbie in charge. That was not good for his heart. He was constantly emailing back and forth, until it was pointed out to him that he was acting remarkably like his ex-wife. He prides himself on being the ante-Helen.

The only positive about almost dying he got to spend a lot more time with his grandchildren and the rest of his family. He honestly could do without being smothered by his ex-wife. He's pretty sure she did not even act like this when he had a heart attack during their marriage. Quinn was driving him crazy with her over protectiveness but she still wasn't as bad as Helen. At least, Quinn will compromise.

Of course, the one thing she would not compromise on was on him living alone. He enjoyed his independence but he knew it would be awhile before he could live on his own again and the thought of being in a senior living community made him slightly ill. He would've been willing to move to Malibu temporarily if Quinn asked but he wasn't expecting her to volunteer to come here.   
However, he knew that she needed a change after Jonathan. He really did not want there to be another burning of a car incident. Besides, he wanted his daughter home where he could watch her. There was no way he was going to let her marry another bastard like Jonathan Starr. There was a nice girl that worked in his office that would be perfect for Quinn.

Of course, once he arrived at Quinn's new house he realized it was the twin's idea. They were trying to seem altruistic but he knew the real reason why they were here. They both absolutely despised their posh private school in Malibu. Actually they hated Malibu. There are too many bad memories there. Bianca hated anybody overly pretentious and that school was filled with the pretentious.   
However, in Chloe's case she was just starting to realize that unlike all her friends she was not into boys. She was afraid that they wouldn't like her and therefore she was following in her biological mother's footsteps by putting on the heterosexual facade. He was happy that Dr. Mo decided that the girls should see the school psychologist, even if it led to his daughter being reintroduced to the man who broke her heart at 16.

Being back in his old house was slightly surreal, but it helped that it was nothing like it was when he lived there with Helen (except for what would become Bianca's room). He did imagine quality time with his grandkids in this house and he was now getting his wish, although living with teenagers again was not doing anything for his stress levels. How did he survive that the first time around? He wondered if buying her old house was Quinn's version of buying Fighting Joe action figures because she was not allowed to play with such things because Mad Dog thought that it made him week? He decided it was best not to say anything. Mad Dog related rants were also bad for his health.

He liked his new first floor bedroom with its own bathroom. He did miss living on his own but he realized that was not an option right now. Every time he got in a fight about salmon burgers he told himself that Quinn was a lot more tolerable than the alternative of living with Helen and Eric. That would make him want to die despite the baby on the way or at least the baby that was supposed to be on the way.

He was the only one who knew about the future grandchild besides Trent. Even Jane did not know yet. Nikki and Daria wanted to wait until the end of the first trimester. They were planning to tell everyone when they came to visit in April after the reunion tour of Asia and Australia was done. As soon as the April visit was canceled, he knew something wasn't quite right. After witnessing the shouting match between sisters, he decided to call. Good thing he knew exactly what time it was in Hong Kong.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay kiddo." He told Daria when he called her.

"Everything's perfectly fine. Something just came up and we can't get there until late May or early June." By the way she said it Jake knew something wasn't quite right.

"I understand." He said not understanding at all. "Hey, how is my new grand baby doing?" Instead of answering, the line went dead. He called back only to have Nikki pick up the phone.

"Hi Jake." Nikki said picking up this time.

"I guess we got cut off there." He said laughing.

"Not really. Daria is not in the mood to answer baby questions at the moment or really deal with anybody who actually knows her. Unfortunately, she used her 'annoyed at reporters' technique on you. I'm sorry about that." Nikki apologized but his words just made Jake more concerned.

"What's going on?" Jake asked with concern.

"There's not going to be a grandchild, at least not for a little while. Daria had a miscarriage." Nikki's voice was shaky as he spoke.

His words instantly transported Jake back several years when he heard the same words from Helen. They were not trying to get pregnant but it just happened, stupid antibiotics. It was a horrible time for new kid. His boss was a dick, the fridge just broke, and the school psychologist was calling them in all the time because Daria wasn't 'normal'. Despite that, he still wanted the child but it wasn't meant to be, Helen lost the baby. The fighting just kept getting worse to the point where he checked himself into a hotel because he just couldn't deal with it. He understood what was going on with Daria.

"Is that why she's not coming? Daria doesn't back out of her commitments without good reason." Jake said sadly.

"I just don't think seeing her baby sister with her happy children is the best thing for her right now, even if Quinn did not give birth to the girls. You know that she loves you but…" Nikki trailed off.

"I understand." He said sadly. Daria needed some time alone and he would give that to her.

"I will have her call in a few days." Nikki assured him.

"Do you want me to tell Quinn what is going on so she will stop ranting about being stuck taking care of everything? She is under a lot of stress right now and she is taking it out on everyone."

"Daria doesn't want anybody to know. We definitely don't want this to get to the press and the less people that know the better. " Nikki explained.

"Of course," Jake agreed knowing that it would be better for everyone involved if Quinn knew.

"Is it really that bad?" His son in law asked.

"You do remember having to use your corporate pull to get Chloe out of jail?" Jake deadpanned.

"Okay, it's that bad."

"I think I am making it worse by not following doctors' orders. I'm a grown man and I can have a cheeseburger if I want one, damn it. She has imposed forced nap times. She worries too much and takes too much on. Besides she thinks she has to do everything herself." Jake said sadly.

"If you want to live long enough to see more grandchildren or the twins graduate from high school, I suggest salmon or at least lean ground beef and baked sweet potato fries." Jake just kept quiet on that.

"It's hard when roles are reversed. You're used to taking care of her, instead of her taking care of you. There's bound to be some problems. Then there's the fact that Quinn is Quinn and always takes too much on. Lindsey said she was a workaholic. I've heard stories about her going out with three guys in one night because she didn't want to disappoint anyone. She needs help. Maybe she should get an assistant or maybe a boyfriend." The last part was probably meant to be a joke but Jake did not like it.

"She's trying to find a suitable assistant but the interviews did not go very well. As for the boyfriend thing, I just had a heart attack. Don't joke about that sort of thing, son." Jake said feeling just a little dizzy.

"Of course not, I need to get back to my wife. I'll call back later." With that, Nikki was gone and Jake had thoughts of his daughter with another version of Jonathan Starr to keep him from obsessing over his loss grandchild.

Eventually, Quinn did find an assistant and an old friend in the process. He felt guilty for not giving Quinn her old friend's phone number but he really just forgot. Having Stacy around again was good for her. Even better Bianca's new job at Feisty kept her away from any interested boys. He was also happy that Quinn had more female friends around.

Quinn's guy friends did not help his stress level until he realized that they really were just friends. How was he supposed to know Joey had a husband? He will not confirm or deny that he was so fussy about the food in retaliation for the guy friends. Although, now he liked Joey a lot mostly because he had a new friend to golf with as soon as Dr. Mike says he can hit the links again.

Because of her renewed acquaintance with Stacy, she was introduced to Kat who was wonderful. He liked Kat. She was a good assistant and she definitely made Quinn's life easier. He also liked her because she did not treat him like a child. She was always very respectful and good to be around. She was a good listener and never thought that his rants were completely crazy. He got to know her very well when Quinn was in Malibu to take care of some loose ends during spring break. Kat was very observant as well. 

"You do realize that your ex-wife was still in love with you and is trying to get you back." Kat told him one morning during breakfast after the girls left for school and Quinn locked herself in her office to work on her new book.

"I'm not sure about the love part. I think she just needs something right now. Her current husband is a bit of a bastard." Jake said quickly. He personally believes that was why his ex-wife is there all the time, in addition to trying to control every aspect of Quinn life, even going so far as to try to sabotage her love life. He would love to tell his ex-wife that Ted would never be interested in Quinn because he was currently in a committed relationship with Jake's number two Robbie for the last three years. Jake even suggested that Chloe spend time with Ted because being around him may help Chloe get more comfortable with herself. Jake doesn't tell other people secrets. Helen knew full well that his daughter was completely interested in someone else but she wouldn't back off.

"No kidding. That moron already propositioned me twice." Kat said in anger.

"Did you tell Quinn about that?" He asked really not wanting to get into it.

"No. I need this job to pay for rent and Rahman noodle."

"She's not going to fire you for that." He reassured her.

"I don't want to take any chances. So are you interested in your ex?" Kat asked without hesitation.

"A part of me will always love her. However, the more practical part knows we are much better off as friends. Our relationship is stronger now. I think it would be destroyed if we went back to what we had before."

"You're a very wise man." Kat said smiling.

"No, I just think that I've lived a long time." He said getting up.

"Are you interested in ever dating again?" Her question caught him off guard.

"Why do you ask?" Jake asked hesitantly.

"I think you would be perfect for my mother. She's an English teacher at one of the most pretentious preparatory schools in the metro." Jake just sighed at that.

"I don't like being setup. Besides this is not the best time." He said as an excuse.

"Probably not but I'm not suggesting doing anything that could raise your heart rate. You know that we are all planning on giving Quinn the night of her birthday party off for 'private time'." Jake was pretty sure that private time referred to David but he didn't say anything.

"Anyway, my mom performs at the Lawndale Hills’ Busboys and Poets on the weekends. Maybe you and your friend Anthony could check out her performance. I know you're looking for something to do to avoid Quinn's birthday party being thrown by the happy couple."

"Maybe," was all Jake said.

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Other than his ex-wife driving him slightly crazy, the other thing that was keeping his blood pressure up was David. The first time he saw the two together as adults he knew there was something there. Whenever Quinn talked about him her face lit up completely. He has never seen her that happy before, not even when she thought that she was in love with Jonathan. Just her being around him made her less stressed. He helped her with the girls and it was obvious to Jake that he liked both girls immensely. Whenever she returns from one of her 'sleepovers' she was unbelievably happy. (Jake really hoped that she was telling the truth when she said that no sex was involved but Jake knew better. Quinn was just too happy.)

He finally knew that this guy was going to be around for a long time when he came over for Chinese and helped Quinn work on her story. Finely, Quinn had somebody she could bounce ideas off of other than the twins. That's when Jake realized that Quinn finely found her other half. David appreciated her in ways that her ex did not. He valued her writing and her children. Jake did not believe the just Friends thing at all. Certain marks on his daughter's neck made that impossible. Also he's pretty sure he saw her underwear tucked into the couch cushions.

The next day he used picking the Twins up from detention as an excuse to see David. It was time for the two to have a very serious conversation.

"I doubt that you're here to talk about the twins." David said as he took a seat.

"They didn't blow up anything today did they?" Jake asked knowing that it was possible.

"Not that I'm aware of." He said honestly.

"Oh good. No, I'm not here to talk about that. What's going on between you and my daughter?" Jake asked quickly.

"We're just friends." David said halfheartedly as if he did an even believe it anymore.

"I was young once, son. My heart may be in bad shape, but my eyes are working perfectly fine." He said purposely glaring at David.

"What did you see?" David asked hesitantly

"It was hard to miss the gigantic hickey on her throat last night." Jake heard something that sounded like several curse words being mumbled under breath.

"Do you love my daughter?" He asked getting to the root of the issue.

"I'm getting there. It's hard not to." He can tell by his tone that David was being sincere.

"She has that way about her. She had two gay guys chasing after her." Jake said laughing.

"I've heard." David said with a laugh before becoming serious again. "Nothing happened when she was a teenager. She wasn't ready for something real."

"I know. I heard everything. You did the right thing, even if you did it in the wrong way. You know that you were the only person to ever really break her heart. I don't even think the ex was that successful." Jake told him sadly.

"I know." David said not looking at him.

"Don't do it again." Jake said forcefully.

"I will try not to."

"Good, welcome to the family." Faith said extending a hand.

"Now, if only your ex was so welcoming." David said accepting.

"She'll come around eventually... or maybe not." He said thinking better of it. "Maybe you can do some sort of contract. Sometimes, I think legal forms are the only thing she understands."

"Maybe," he said almost dismissively as if he thought nothing was going to make Helen like him.

"I will try to talk to her." He said before leaving to find the Twins.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The conversation did not exactly happen as planned and it happened a lot sooner than expected. For reasons known only to her, Helen crashed the family dinner that night. She also got into a major fight with Quinn when she pushed the David issue.

"I can't believe she kicked me out." Helen said seething. "I'm just trying to keep her from making the same mistake again. You can't trust a guy like that."

"Helen, you need to back off before Quinn kicks you out of her house and life permanently. She's a big girl with her own family, if she wants to date Dr. Dave, then that's fine with me." Jake said giving his daughter his full support.

"You don't know him." She said with anger.

"I know David better than you do. I know for a fact that nothing happened when she was 16. He walked away because he knew she was not ready for that type of relationship." Jake defended Quinn.

"I can't tell you how I know but I just know that's not true." She said cryptically.

"The only reason why you wouldn't tell me something is if it is attorney-client privilege information. Unless you spoke to a student that he has had an improper relationship with, I don't want to hear it. I sincerely doubt that." Jake said resolutely.

"It was not a student but his former fiancée who came to me. I can't say anything else." She told him and he wanted to laugh.

"You mean the one whom left him at the altar for his older brother and then had a baby by him less than six months later? I'm not sure I would trust anything she said. I think you need to get to know him yourself." Jake argued.

"You have a valid point." Helen said grudgingly as she tried to grab his hand but he wouldn't let her.

"Helen, you're the mother of my children and my best friend but it's never going to be more than that again. You lost the chance and I'm not going to go backwards. You have no right to be jealous of other people, especially Sarah. I'm a grown up too. I know you want me to help you deal with whatever is going on with you and Eric. I can be your friend but I can't be your lover. You can't use me to get revenge on your husband." He told her honestly.

"I'm not looking for that. There's nothing wrong with my marriage. I'm not trying to get back at Eric. Everything's okay." She said this in a way that made him automatically not believe her.

"Why are you here all the time? Why are you trying to act like you're still my wife, when you haven't been for a very long time?" He asked her the question that has been on his mind for a while.

"I'm not doing that." Helen argued back.

"Of course, you're not." Jake said taking a deep breath trying to stay calm using one of the relaxation techniques that Dr. Mike gave him.

"Do you know why I had another heart attack?" Jake asked seriously.

"You eat way too much Cluster Burger. If you didn't want to cook you could've always come over. You know my door is always open to you." Jake wanted to mumble something about how that would have done very little to help his blood pressure but he didn't say anything.

"No, I spent an entire pre-golf branch listening to your husband talk about his assistant wonderful 'assets' and the intern that he's fucking." Jake spat out bitterly realizing that he needed to tell her the entire truth.

"He's not doing that." She argued back but the argument was weak.

"Yes, he is and you already know that. Why exactly is Brooke your assistant now?" He asked poignantly.

"She just needed a change." The excuse seems flimsy to both.

"You are the most stubborn woman I have ever met. You're not going to believe me until you're ready, whether it be about Eric or David." Jake said fishing in his pocket for his key and gave it to Helen.

"I probably won't be returning to my condo for a while." He said not telling her that he was already thinking about buying the house down the street so he could be close to Quinn but without risk walking in on her acting the scene from page 244 from Tutor for the Heart. "When you're ready to be as brave as your youngest daughter, you have a place to stay." Jake turned around and walked away before she could say anything. When he got back in the house, Quinn was already on the phone with David. Why wasn't he surprised at all?

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On the morning after Quinn's 28th birthday, Jake slowly walked back into the house. He actually had a pretty pleasant evening with Kat's mother. Cassandra was a really nice woman and he found the poetry reading very pleasant. It was more entertaining than when he did that sort of thing in college.

He decided it was in his best interest to stay out of the house that night because he really didn't want to find out about his adult daughter's sex life that meant returning to his old familiar couch at Anthony's house. He may really like David but there are just some things a father never wants to know.

Fortunately, he walked in to see his youngest daughter and her boyfriend sleeping on the couch fully clothed and wrapped around each other. They looked adorable in a heart wrenching way. If he was still a gambler, he would put $50.00 on having a new son in law by Christmas.

"Hi, you hand daddy." Quinn said yawning.

"Did you have a good birthday, Princess?" Jake asked as he kissed her on the forehead.

"It had its moments. David had a contract made where he promises to be loyal to me and mom left Eric. That alone is the best present ever." It took all his strength not to smile at that when Quinn told him.

"She actually left?" Jake asked disbelieving her

"She caught Eric and his brand new assistant Cherri, yes that is her real name, practically screwing in public on top of his vintage Jaguar at the hotel across from the Cluster Burger by your old office building." You would really think that the bastard would choose a different hotel? Jake absolutely appreciated the irony of the moment but he wouldn't say I told you so. He also wouldn't start humming his son in law's old song Karma's Payback.

"Where's your mother?" He asked quickly.

"Upstairs in my bedroom, she fell asleep after breaking that horrible statue that Eric sent as a housewarming gift." Quinn told him but Jake was already halfway up the stairs. Jake slowly opened the door to the room that used to be his bedroom when he was Helen's husband.

"Are you here to say I told you so?" An obviously crying Helen asked him.

"No, but if you want to talk about how big of a bastard Eric is, I'm here to listen." He said sitting next to her.

"You probably already know everything I can tell you. You knew before I did." She said bitterly.

"So what are you going to do now?" He asked moving on to safer ground.

"I already started divorce proceedings, although the papers won't be filed till Monday morning. I hired Eric's ex-wife as my lawyer. She knows how his mind works better than anyone else." Jake wanted to ask which one but kept his mouth shut.

"The divorce is going to be the easy part. Thanks to you, I already have somewhere else to live for a while, at least. The hard part will be having to work with him every day."

"You don't have too."

"Eric blacklisted his last wife from every law firm in the beltway region. She eventually got another job but it took a switch to family law." She explained definitively.

"So start your own firm?"

"It's not that simple." She said sighing.

"Helen, I help people start new companies all the time. I even know a landlord who owns a building downtown that will give you a break on your first few months’ rent. It's feasible." He says with reassurance.

"You're going to help me start my own law firm?" She asked skeptically. "Do you have any idea what that will entail?"

"Yes and yes." He's been thinking about her doing this for years. "I know you can do it. Half of the clients at your firm are there for you. Startups are what I do. We can discuss the details over breakfast."

"Okay, what do I have to lose at this point?" She said in defeat.

"Eric," he said smiling as he moved for the door to let her get ready.

"Do you think I'll be able to get Ted to come with me?" She asked as he walked to the door.

"Considering his boyfriend works upstairs, probably." Jake said leaving the room as Helen mouth the word boyfriend.


	13. Part Ten: Of Sisters Who Give Condom Bouquets and Children Who Constantly Mock You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a bit of the time jump in this chapter.
> 
> Warning: This chapter contains sexual content of the mild variety.

 

 

So much for her idea to keep the fact that she and David were more than just friends a secret. She was hoping that all her friends and family would be too distracted by the demise of her mother's second marriage to actually notice. That didn't happen. Everybody knew by Monday, if not earlier.

 

It was probably her own fault for going back to sleep after her dad arrived, leading to Jane catching her and David in a compromising position. Jane saved all inappropriate jokes for the train station, when she dropped her friend off the next day. At the time, she was too busy convincing Quinn to turn the whole mess into her graphic novel. After reading a few issues of America Splendor, the idea has merit but Quinn is just not sure if she should write about her real life or her alter egos' pretend one.

 

Lindy did similar inappropriate jokes via text message but without trying to convince Quinn to turn her life into art. She found out because the twins caught an afternoon living room make out session that occurred because everyone was out of the house. It was her own fault for not moving to the bedroom. They were kind enough to send everyone but her father pictures of the entire thing. Thankfully, they love their grandfather enough to not give him another heart attack. He may like David but she is sure he doesn't want to see that. Unfortunately, they don't like their grandmother very well but she was fortunately distracted with her divorce and did not say anything.

 

The mass e-mail resulted in her sister or Nikki sending her a condom bouquet a few days later. Thankfully, her father was too busy starting Barksdale-Morgendorffer and Jefferson and wasn't there to see the thing. Unfortunately, the twins were and her boyfriend was the one who gave the twins a ride home after their detention of organizing Dr. Lanes' office. She is going to be dealing with condom jokes for a very long time.

 

There is a good chance that her sister or brother in law also sent a condom bouquet to Lawndale high as well the next day. Then again, it could have been Monique but she refuted any knowledge due to the fact that a certain PTA President that Quinn despises was in the vicinity. She was just glad she was not there for that.

 

Some of David's friends were also her friends and therefore received the e-mail from the twins. The happy couple were very excited and kept the teasing down to a bare minimum. Then again, what they did do may be construed as teasing. They may have shared with him everything they learned from their time dating Quinn including what temperature she liked her soda and her cracker preferences. David did not have the heart to tell the guys that she never did drink anything they gave her and those little errands were just a means for her to keep everyone at arm's length. He was the only one who knew why she really did stuff like that back then.

 

She's pretty sure the girls even included Brittany in the mass e-mail. By Wednesday, Brittany ran an article about the new guy in Miss Powers' life. She's pretty sure that Bianca slipped it to Brittany just to make sure that the evil Sandi was out-scooped. It was the same picture that everyone else got but the image was Photoshoped to look like Melody Powers.

 

Bianca may have had other motives. While she was having fun with her new boyfriend, the wonderful Brittany broke a story about Jonathan Starr dating the notorious Astoria Amsterdam. Considering the fact that David is a much better kisser than her former husband, she really doesn't care who he is dating. What bothers her is that the woman responsible for Lindsey's death is able to party on private yachts with overly pretentious bad actors while Lindsey is dead and unable to see what beautiful women her children were growing into. The fact that it's Quinn's former husband just lowered her opinion even more. Even though Bianca won't say anything, Quinn just knows she's furious about the whole thing and got her revenge in the best way possible, even if that meant leaking a story to the press. David agrees with her opinion.

 

Without Stacy, Sandi probably didn't have a chance in hell of finding out what was really going on between her and David. Although, the gossip item that ran a week later about how David was dating soccer mom Quinn and writer extraordinaire Melody Powers simultaneously was closer to the truth than Quinn thought possible. Fortunately, it was off enough that it was too absurd to believe.

 

The whole reason why she wanted to keep things quiet was she was unsure of how the twins would react. After they started spreading the news, they were actually giving each other high fives. There was lots of teasing especially after the bouquet incidents. They probably were a lot nicer to him than they were to Jonathan. They have yet to cover David in water balloons or flower. Maybe, it just seemed like they were doing more because the twins spend a lot more time with David than anyone else she has ever dated. She was with Jonathan for a few months before he met the twins as her boyfriend. David was already a fixture at her house, even helping with homework and the dishes. He drove the kids home from school on days when they were not working. He even survived a Sunday at pizza Forest. (She was pretty sure Daria suggested this particular torture test to see if David really was true boyfriend material.)

 

The only thing about her dating David that the girls did not like, was the fact that they were losing their therapist. Chloe was okay with seeing Dr. Romer, probably because he also treated her BFF Evan. At least, she was okay with it after two days of crying. Bianca still wasn't that happy about it and has already scared away six different doctors. Apparently, David is the only psychologist or human being for that matter that can deal with Bianca. Thank god he is her boyfriend.

 

The worst thing they were doing was planning her wedding, despite the fact that her and David had been together officially for about three weeks. It's not wistful daydreaming but actual planning. They have spread sheets and bridal books. She's pretty sure Chloe has started to interview prospective wedding planners. Together, they ambushed David about colors the day before in his office. They actually brought fabric samples.

 

"I can't believe they did that." Quinn said when they were alone a few Saturdays after her 28th birthday. Despite everything going on with Helen, starting the new law firm and the like, the weekend trip to DC with the twins was not canceled just postponed a few weeks. Dad also decided to bring mom along as a distraction. She needed one considering that Barksdale-Morgendorffer-Schrecter vs. Schrecter is turning into one of the worst divorces in Lawndale County history. Though considering Lawndale has only been a county for 13 years, that's not saying much.

 

It probably would have been a better distraction without the extra visitors. The twins invited Kat, who brought her mom. Quinn was pretty sure Helen did not like Cassandra at all. Her dad did, which is why he spent another Saturday at a poetry reading and had coffee with her two days ago. Quinn was positive his dad liked Cassandra. She was a little surprised at first because she thought her dad liked Sarah which was true but then she found out Sarah is not available. The fact that her dad was interested in someone was probably why he was so okay with David. Quinn was just happy to be sitting in her boyfriend's lap and not have to deal with the fallout in DC.

 

"Oh wait this is the twins, yes I can." She said thinking better of it. "Bianca now gets seven different wedding magazines. I did not even know there were seven different wedding magazines." Quinn said with a sigh. David started to laugh at that. "I also have a meeting to choose a wedding planner sometime in July after the press tour for the latest book."

 

"On the bright side, you know that she is OK with us being together." Daniel said still laughing.

 

"Of don't laugh, Chloe is much worse. She actually booked me an appointment with Sierra Vera for when I'm in New York in two weeks for the Ashley Foundation gala and for my obligatory morning TV appearances." She still wasn't looking forward to doing the press for the next book but her publicist was forcing her to do things that she really did not want to do. She just hoped that they would not ask questions about the divorce this time. They did when the last book came out in December. She was even going to have to do an interview with Sandi a week or two later. Quinn wonders who Sandi had to blow to get that interview. Considering everything that she has heard from Stacy and Charles, that would probably be the only way the pariah could get the interview. Quinn was personally hoping to get food poisoning that day. She did not want to do it at all.

 

"Isn't she considered the best wedding dress designer in the country? She supposedly has a three year waiting list. How did your 16 year old daughter pull that off?" David asked.

 

"She was dating Lindsey right before she died, secretly of course. She was the first serious girlfriend Lindsey ever had. She absolutely adored Chloe and would do anything for her. Besides, that three year waiting list thing only applied to Astoria Amsterdam for her last quickie marriage because Sierra knew that their relationship wouldn't last the wait. She couldn't say no because of who the client was but who would want to make a dress for the woman who killed your girlfriend." Quinn explained and David just held her hand. He knows that any talk of what happen makes her sad.

 

"How do you know that? I thought you hated anything fashion related." Quinn asked raising an eyebrow.

 

"My sister-in-law wanted her to design her wedding dress for our ill-fated wedding. I said no because I don't think you should spend that much money on a dress you're only going to wear once. Considering what happened, the right call was made." David didn't seem that bitter about the aborted wedding fiasco now.

 

"If it makes you feel better, I doubt Sierra would design anything for someone like her. She does have standards, as I already explained. Also my very opulent wedding dress was a wedding present. I feel bad about it because I used it for a wedding for a marriage that lasted less than it took to actually plan the wedding. If I ever get married again, I'm going to have to get the wedding dress from her just as an apology." Quinn joked.

 

"As long as you pay for it, you can have would ever you want." He joked before becoming serious. "You know you have no reason to be guilty. You are not responsible for the stupidity of others. From what I can tell, your ex was very stupid." David said just before kissing her again. The way he kissed her made her mind go numb. She doesn't have the words to describe the way he makes her feel and she is a romance writer. That sort of thing is supposed to be something she's good at but he makes her speechless.

 

"I know." She finally says when coherent thought returns to her. "So how exactly did you deflect the twins’ questions?"

 

"At first ,I said I'm very happy that they approve of our relationship but that it was too early to contemplate such a serious step. I also said that they should let us concentrate on learning more about each other before we talk about color schemes." He explained rationally.

 

"And after that failed to get them to back off, what did you say?" Quinn asked knowing her children just a little too well.

 

"I told the girls that if I ever get married again it will happen in Vegas." Considering he was left at the altar, she really does not blame him if he was being serious. Sometimes, she wished she would have left Jonathan at the altar. Really, she should have listened to her father when he tried to warn her.

 

"That explains why Chloe was calling various hotels in Vegas to see what type of weddings they do. I think she's planning for us to get married on the roller coaster at New York New York." Quinn joked or at least tried to. Unfortunately, it's not that funny when it's true. She could so see Chloe doing something like that, as long as she wore a designer dress.

 

"She doesn't know me at all. I think I would much prefer the pirate ship at Treasure Island."

 

"Is that even still there?" Quinn asked scratching her head.

 

"I'm not sure but it would be fun. Jane could design your wedding dress. It could be something like bodice ripper cover art." Quinn was glad she finished her popcorn before his little slip up. She wondered if he was completely aware that he just essentially told her that if he were to get married again she would be the bride.

 

"So after everything that happened with she who will not be named, you're willing to try marriage again?" She asked for clarification. What Quinn really wanted to ask was 'do you want to marry me someday?' Unfortunately, she was too much of a cowered to ever ask.

 

"I would be willing to try marriage again for the right person," The way he touched her cheek when he responded practically answered her unasked question. "I will never do a big wedding again. Honestly, I did not want to have one the first time around, she did. It should have been the first sign that my ex was more interested in planning the wedding than spending time with me." He said with a soft smile.

 

"Jonathan was the same way. Fortunately, I put my foot down on the reality shows special." She said in all seriousness.

 

"I think I was more upset about having to pay for a wedding that never happened than getting left at the altar for my brother. The local homeless shelter was able to feed a lot of people that week."

 

"On the bright side, you saved thousands in attorney fees by her leaving before the wedding. Why am I not surprise you donated everything. That's just something you would do. I should have did that with Jonathan stuff instead of reenacting a scene from Waiting To Exhale." She said with a laugh.

 

"I'm sure it was cathartic, if nothing else."

 

"It was after I got out of jail." She responded just as quickly.

 

"So after everything that happened, do you still believe in marriage?" Quinn was almost 90% sure he was asking her if she wanted to marry him someday. Although, considering they have only been dating a few weeks that could not be possible.

 

"You think I wouldn't between the Jonathan disaster and watching both of my mother's marriages implode but deep down I think I still believe in true love. I would be out of a job if I didn't. It's not the same true love that I believed than when I was 16 and thought I would be marrying a member of boys or guys, but nothing is." She laughed when she told him this.

 

"That's because your sister married him instead. Are you actually talking to her again?" David asked knowing all about her fight with Daria.

 

"Yes, mostly just to compare notes on mom's divorce number two. I still don't know why she backed out of coming but I'm not going to worry about it." Quinn explained.

 

"You would think that what's happening with your mother would make you more jaded." He said running a hand through her hair.

 

"Not everyone is Jonathan, your ex, my mother, or Eric. Yes, I've seen a lot of marriages fall apart mostly because of people getting together for the wrong reasons but then there are people like my sister and her husband, the Whites, or Stacy and Charles who are absolutely perfect for each other and make me believe that love is real and maybe marriage can be forever. Charles wants to kill Sandi because she has hurt Stacy so much. He would do anything for her even drive nearly 300 Miles in a rainstorm to be there for her when Tiffany died even though it meant taking an incomplete that semester and they were not even dating yet. Joey and his husband have known each other since kindergarten. They were friends long before they were lovers. Their relationship is deeper than anything I had in my legally recognized marriage." Quinn realizes as she speaks that their relationship is much closer to what she now has with David. She doesn't say anything because that thought terrified her. Instead, she talks about her sisters' marriage. It seemed like safer ground. It is the most functional marriage Quinn has ever seen.

 

"If Daria asked Nikki would give up the entire boy band celebrity thing just for her without a second thought. Daria puts up with all the crazy fan girls just because she completely trusts him not to do anything. Even though she was infatuated with Trent in high school, I doubt she would have done that for him. Then there is Trent and Monique. They could have easily just got together for the sake of the baby, but that didn't happen. What they have is real." Quinn explained.

 

"So you want that?" David asked her quietly.

 

"I think I already have it." She said it so low that she barely heard it herself. But the look in his eyes tells her that he not only heard her words but he understood her meaning.

 

"I think I'm in love with you." The words come out once again as a whisper, almost as if she's not entirely sure that she should even say the words but it's true and not in the way she felt at 16.

 

David does not answer her words but rather with his lips falling on top of hers. At some point, she hears. "I think I do too," between those kisses and touches that she can't articulate into words. Quinn is not sure if she heard this before or after her underwear ended up halfway across the family room.

 

Somewhere in her novel writer mind she was envisioning her first time with David in New York on silk sheets with champagne and chocolate covered fruit after they attended the Ashley Foundation gala. There may or may not have been rose petals on the bed in this fantasy. Instead, it happened on a Saturday when her kids are gone for the weekend. Instead of on silk sheets or in an actual bed, it happened on the couch in the family room. In her mind she is laughing about the fact that When Harry met Sally is playing in the background. They have been ignoring it for this entire conversation. Yet, what happened meant more than any other time.

 

For the very first time in her life, she just knew that the man inside of her really did love her. She knew by the way he caressed her hips and the way his lips glided over her skin. She just knew it was different. So maybe the condom bouquet wasn't such a bad idea.

 

It was only after she came down from her orgasm high that she realized what room they just had sex in. This was just too funny.

 

"Why are you laughing? I have never had this reaction after sex before, except for maybe the first time." He said reaching up to kiss her shoulder.

 

"I'm not laughing at you. I can honestly say with a straight face that was the best I ever had but just barely." She said with a smirk before adding that last part to keep his ego in check.

 

"I'll take that as a compliment considering your first time was with a professional that you still consult on certain scenes you write." He said with a smile.

 

"That's the reason why it's just barely. That nasty hymen just takes the fun out of everything." She said with a smirk. "You probably didn't realize this, because the house has completely different furniture and a much better color scheme, but this is the room where you spent countless hours making me realize I was not a complete idiot."

 

"You' were never stupid, you just acted that way." Quinn couldn't help but laugh at his words.

 

"Truer words had never been spoken."

 

"You're serious, this is that room?" He asked her in surprise.

 

"Very serious; although, I'm happy there is a couch in here now instead of the dining room table that was never actually used."

 

"So how did this compare to your schoolgirl fantasies?" He asked and she became redder than her hair. It was silly to be embarrassed considering that she was sitting on top of him still naked and her legs were 'sticky'. Part of her wanted to deny that she had any sex fantasies about him when he was her tutor but that would be lying, especially because she used thoughts about him for solo "private time" for the rest of high school.

 

"Can I not answer this question?" She said hiding her face underneath one of the couch cushions which will most likely have to be replaced due to "staining." She was going to have to get rid of this couch or at least change it out for the one in her office.

 

"The woman who wrote a seven page sex scene where the C word was mentioned 25 times is afraid to talk about her high school fantasies? You probably put all of them in your first book." That was so not true. Her publisher wouldn't let her put half of that stuff in there.

 

"Fine, this was definitely more practical. I don't know why I wanted to lose my virginity on the formal living room table. It hurt like hell in a bed with lots of lube and somebody who knew what he was doing. Although, I'm not sure if this is better than the New York City thing I had planned for after the Ashley Foundation benefit." She said smirking as she started to look for her blouse. It was currently on top of table lamp.

 

"So what were you planning?" he asked smirking.

 

"We were going to stay at the penthouse at Astoria towers. I was planning for something involving chocolate sauce and strawberries." Just because she hated their heirs didn't mean she was going to give up her favorite hotel. Besides Ms. Amsterdam's family took more responsibility for what happened than she did. Quinn gets free rooms for life.

 

"Sounds interesting; although, it depends on what you're planning to do with the chocolate."

 

"You'll just have to find out the next time the twins have a sleepover. I almost wished that Sandi was not such a bitch and Chloe still had other friends besides Evan. She can only take so much time around the Sloans."

 

"I thought that things were better now that Alexis moved out and was staying with the Ruttheimers." So after everything that happened three weeks ago, Alexis' refuses to be anywhere near her stepmom and was sleeping in Stacey's guest room. Alexis' dad is okay with the arrangement because he still felt guilty about the birthday thing. Although, not guilty enough to actually come back to Lawndale. Also as the first client of Barksdale-Morgendorffer and Jefferson Alexis may have threatened her father with a suit for emancipation. He is sending Stacy what could be considered child support that equals about twice her former salary. Also, the man refused to take Stacy's resignation. Technically, she is on early maternity leave.

 

"I don't know if I consider a truce an improvement or not. There is just too much tension there and the other girls are still afraid to be Chloe's friend in public because their parents don't want them hanging out with a girl whose mom was a lesbian. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop." Quinn just knew something big was going to happen, she just wasn't sure what. David looked very sad for a moment.

 

"Very practical. There is still New York in two weeks. Am I still going with you?" David asked her.

 

"Yes, barring any catastrophe. Part of me is hoping that Chloe will do something stupid, so I will not have to go. There's no way I'm going to the Ashley Foundation dinner again without an escort." The year before had been a disaster, mostly because her assistant at that time forgot to take Jonathan off the guest list. Thank god she decided to have her alter ego tape her speech ahead of time and went to the dinner as Quinn. Thanks to the confidentiality agreement, her new ex-husband couldn't screw with her that much. Let's just hope the person in charge this year remembers to not let Jonathan crash the dinner with his brand new girlfriend.

 

"Am I going with Melody or Quinn?" He asked her.

 

"Unfortunately, Melody. I can't pull off the same thing I did last year, especially with having to do press the day before for the new book." She said with disappointment. She wanted him to be just hers.

 

"That wouldn't be a problem if everybody knew that you are the wonderful Miss Powers. I know you came up with the idea to use an alternate identity to protect the girls when they were a lot younger but maybe it's time to let go of that." He suggested.

 

"Stacy said the same thing a couple of days ago. Bianca and Chloe suggested that I do it on Sandi show just for shock value." Quinn told him laughing.

 

"I'm all for that." He said supportively.

 

"Of course you are." Quinn said smirking. Unfortunately, her stomach growled it that. How late was it?

 

"So pizza or..." He trailed off. So apparently he heard her stomach growling. She couldn't believe it was past 7PM. The bowl of popcorn she had was at least 3 hours ago.

 

"I was supposed to go grocery shopping today but you distracted me. I think I may have breakfast food in the refrigerator. If we go with that I don't have to get dressed." He instantly agreed and they came up with some interesting uses for strawberry pancakes syrup or at least they did before everyone arrived at the house early. Thank god they moved to the bedroom by that point.

 

She's not entirely sure what happened but apparently Helen and Kat's mom got in a fight and were kicked out by security somewhere. She did not ask questions and her mom didn't mention anything about the strawberry pancake syrup that was in her hair.

 

To be continued


	14. Part 11: An Empire State of Disaster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Allusions to sexual situations, also the end of the chapter is going to allude to something really dark but I don't want to give anything specific now because I don't want to ruin it. If you are sensitive to dark things, please stop reading when Quinn gets called out of the Ashley Foundation banquet.

Quinn was nervously running around her house trying to pack everything for the trip to New York. They had to be at Union Station in an hour and a half and she still wasn't sure where her Melody pumps were. She hoped the twins were packed but she doubted it. Normally, they would be coming with her but finals were coming up and the girls could not miss the next week of school. Personally, she considered it a miracle that Monique was letting David come with her for a few days.

Actually, she considered it a miracle that Monique and Trent were allowing both girls to stay at their house for the next five days. If they said no, she wasn't sure what she would have done. She barely trusted her dad to take care of himself for five days let alone the girls. (Considering Dr. Mike just gave her dad the all clear to engage in certain activities that Quinn doesn't want to think about and he now had a brand-new girlfriend, she is sure that her father wants some alone time. She doesn't ask him about Cassandra and he doesn't ask questions about David when he runs into him at breakfast now. It works well for both of them.)

Kat would be coming with her to New York to handle things; otherwise, she would be perfect for long-term babysitting. The girls actually listen to her. Her mom was obviously out, especially considering she was going through the 12 stages of grief. She was currently stuck in the pissed off at the world stage. There is no way the twins would stay with her mother voluntarily under the best of circumstances.

Let's be honest, she doesn't trust them to stay alone, especially in light of Chloe's complicated relationship with Alexis. They were on speaking terms this week but that could change quickly and most likely result in bloodshed. No, this was the best arrangement for everyone. Now if only she could find her damn shoes.

Ten minutes later and still no shoes, Trent pulled into her driveway in a vehicle that his wife refers to as the blue bomb II. "We have two freaking Lexus and yet he still won't part with that stupid van." Mo complained to her over coffee one time. She despises the thing but he doesn't like the other cars.

"Chloe, Bianca, your ride is here." She called up from the bottom of the stairs remembering all the times her dad did the same thing when her dates came. Thank God her daughters aren't into that. She doesn't think that she could take the serial dating if they were anything like her in those days. Actually, she is not sure she can deal with dating at all.

"Thank you for doing this." She said letting Trent into the house.

"No problem. It's not like we don't have the space and your children are kind of cool. They're nothing like you at that age." Trent said with a trademark shrug. If she didn't agree with him, she would be offended.

"I guess you don't have to worry about your various siblings stopping by unannounced anymore?" Quinn asked.

"Monique stopped that after my brother's last divorce. She doesn't like being cried on unless it's a student or Madison. Only Adrianne comes now and that won't be for a few more weeks."

"Is he still in law school?" Quinn asked still slightly shocked that anybody from the Lane family would do something that traditional; well, anyone other than Madison. That particular Lane wants to be a psychologist just like David.

"Yes, mom is still quite upset about it but then again she wasn't that happy about me getting a teaching certificate. I kind of expected it, especially considering how much time he spent with your mother. He was always mad about what happened to his mother, he sees getting into law as a means to change that. Sometimes, you just got to let kids do their own thing." Who knew Trent was such a fountain of parenting advice. Quinn decided not to ask Trent to elaborate on what happened with his sister. It probably wasn't anything good considering Summer is still in the Alderson facility.

"Are you going to see your sister when you're in New York?" Trent asked after a few more moments of silence. Seriously, what was taking those girls so long upstairs? It wasn't like they were not experts on packing. The twins could pack their own stuff by the time they were five, according to Lindsay.

"We're supposed to do a home-cooked dinner at Jane's loft tonight." Her boyfriend was forcing it because he thinks she needs to deal with her spat with her sister. Even the threat of dealing with the big sister was not enough to scare him off.

"Jane is actually going to cook?" Trent asked crooking his head. They were both familiar with James nonexistent culinary skills. However, what do you expect from someone who considers gummy bears an art supply?

"Actually, I think it's her cute next-door neighbor that is the chef and has a crush on your sister. As long as this dinner doesn't take place in front of an army of paparazzi, I don't care if we are eating cold Cluster Burger." She likes it when she doesn't have to be her other self. She doesn't want this reconciliation with her sister to be front-page news even if no one else knew what was really going on (Although, Britney probably would). In addition, she doesn't want the inevitable boyfriend interrogation to happen in public. That was just going to be bad; although, if her sister was focused on the new boyfriend they wouldn't have to talk about why they were not speaking to each other for three months.

Then again, she is dating a licensed therapist; therefore, this family dinner may just become a therapy session. Just last week, there was this incident where Helen stopped by for dinner when Cassandra was there and all hell broke out. Helen wasn't doing very well with dad moving on. Thankfully, David was there to mediate when she and the girls hid out at Pizza Prince to avoid the fireworks and to prevent her from having flashbacks to senior year.

"That's good either way. I'm glad that you and Daria are speaking to each other. She can use all the family support she can get after losing the baby and everything." Quinn wasn't expecting that.

"What baby?" She asked completely lost. Trent has not confused her this much since she first met him.

"You didn't know?" Trent asked with a panic expression.

"I didn't know what?" Quinn asked realizing that she was missing something that apparently involved a baby.

"I'm just going to help the girls with their things." Okay, even she could tell that was an obvious attempt to get away from her.

"Trent what are you talking about?" Quinn said physically stopping him from going upstairs.

"If she didn't tell you, she must have a reason. I can't say anything else." With that, Trent was up the stairs leaving an extremely confused Quinn behind.

* * *

Now she can absolutely believe that her sister had a miscarriage and didn't tell her about it. She has a much better relationship with her sister now but it's still slightly screwed up. On the outside, Daria may seem like the toughest person on the planet but underneath those horrible doc Martens she is still a sensitive soul, as Jane would put it. Now she could call her sister and confront her but that would just lead to a lot of screaming and she doesn't want to do that with David in the car. He may take her cell phone from her and she needed it for the three hour train ride to New York. Instead, she called Nikki because, one, she wouldn't yell at him. Two, he would actually answer her questions. Finally, he was nowhere near as defensive as her sister.

Her brother in law explained everything, including the real reason why her sister backed out of coming to Lawndale last spring. Apparently, she didn't want to be around Quinn and her supposedly perfect family after losing the baby that she wasn't expecting but secretly wanted anyway.

She was angry that Daria didn't tell her because she would understand probably more than her sister would know. Two days before she found out that Jonathan was a complete asshole she missed her period. Then everything fell apart. She didn't have time to take a pregnancy test and then her monthly intrusion showed up. Her gynecologist said it was possible that she was pregnant but lost the baby due to the stress. For the sake of her sanity, she decided to go with the idea that she was never pregnant in the first place. No one else but David, knew about that. She told him during her angry rant on the way to New York. Kat was currently hiding in the observation car giving the couple space to talk.

"Don't you think you're being a little unreasonable?" David said as he took a bite of the salad that they picked up at Union Station. She prefers to travel by train into New York but the food in the snack car left much to be desired.

"I have a right to be upset. Not only did she back out of her promise to help me with dad, she didn't trust me enough to tell me why. It's not like I'm going to sell her out to TMZ and the like. I'm her sister." Quinn said in an angry whisper.

"Maybe she just wasn't ready for other people to know. The loss of a child, even during such an early stage, can be very hard for some. She just needed time to recover." David said squeezing her hand.

"I get that. I could understand if I accidentally found out from Jane but I found out from Trent. Trent!"

"The guy has been your sister's friend for almost as long as Jane has been. Also, I don't know if you know this but Trent was a bit more familiar with the situation because he went through something similar with Monique a couple of years ago." Quinn knew what David was talking about thanks to Madison. Quinn made the mistake of asking the girl if she was as obsessed with getting a new sibling as Chloe and Bianca. Madison than went on to tell her all about her mom's last pregnancy and subsequent delivery of a baby that did not survive childbirth. Quinn already knew that Jane was supposed to have a new niece or nephew but she never knew the details of how it fell apart.

"Okay, I can see your point. Trent probably understood the situation better then Jane. However, I could understand as well considering what happened to me." Quinn complained.

"Does she know that?" Of course, David would have to ask her such a logical question.

"You're the only one who really knows. I just didn't see the point of telling anybody, since it was probably just a pregnancy scare."

"I thought your doctor said that you were most likely pregnant and lost the baby due to stress." David said stroking her hand. She really did need his touch at that moment.

"It's just easier for me to think of it as a false alarm. It was for the best." Quinn said on the verge of tears as David wrapped his arms around her. Fortunately, Kat came in at that moment carrying something that smelled horrible. The fact that she instantly became nauseous broke her out of her depressing thoughts.

"Did you get that from the snack car? That doesn't even smell like food." Quinn said as she started to gag.

"I'm not sure this is food. It was supposed to be a cheeseburger." She said looking at the burger dubiously.

"I told you to get something at Union Station. I think I'm going to throw up." Quinn said mentally trying to remember where the closest restroom was.

"You have been using condoms, right?" Kat asked taking a bite of that horrible Burger as Dave it started to choke.

"Don't even joke about that. As I told the Whites, I'm not willing to get stretch marks for anything less than an engagement ring."

"How many carrots?" David asked after his breathing return to normal.

"For you I would take something out of the gum ball machine." She whispered in his ear. He just smiled back at her.

Xxx

"I thought we were staying in a hotel?" David asked when the cab dropped them off at an apartment building on the Upper East Side.

"That was the plan but Jane won't let me." Quinn explained as she tipped the driver.

"Why should she stay in a hotel when technically she owns the place?" Jane said leading the two inside.

"This is your house? How rich are you?" David asked almost joking.

"It was Lindsey's and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it after everything happened. Jane needed a place to stay, so we came to an arrangement." Actually, the arrangement started a little bit before then but David didn't need to know that.

"Yes, so began my career as a professional house sitter." Jane said jokingly. "You're upstairs in Lindsey's old bedroom. It's still soundproof."

Really, she should have known that she was being set up as soon as she heard those words. The couple walked into a dominatrix's paradise. There were chains, whips, handcuffs, and leather restraints everywhere. She's pretty sure she saw the device hanging over the bed on Tommy Lee's episode of MTV cribs.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" David asked calmly, maybe a little too calmly.

"This is Lindsey's old stuff or at least I think it is, unless Jane is keeping something from me. I was sure we got rid of all this stuff after Lindsay died." Quinn doesn't even want to think about cleaning out Lindsey's various bedrooms. She was blushing the entire time. Although, it wasn't as disturbing as finding her father's ‘private drawer’ when they were cleaning out his condo.

"No, I just put it all in the basement because I thought I could use it for a statue or something. I'm working on an installation called housewife S&M." Considering some of the artwork Jane does, she really should not be surprised. At least twice, the publisher went apoplectic when they saw Jane's original cover work. She said they were more appropriate for hustler than the cover of a novel.

"Do I even want to know?"

"Of course, I'm sending you tickets for the show next month and I'm going to take you on a preview tomorrow. Just don't bring the kids or take pictures. Also don't tell your mother."

"Because you want at least one of your nieces to still respect you." Quinn quiped.

"Damn right. Besides, I thought you two would need some of this stuff. I mean seriously family room couch, who knew you had it in you. Then again, I have read your books and I sincerely hope that you don't sue me for re-creating the infamous table scene." She would do something like that. Actually, Jane already has.

"I won't, but I can't say anything for the publisher; unless you tell me exactly how you found out about what happened in the family room." Quinn demanded.

"Bianca said your father found a condom wrapper in the couch cushions."

"Fuck." Quinn wanted to crawl under furniture. No, she wanted to get out of there and into the nearest coffee shop. She needed a dose of caffeine to survive this week intact.

"That explains the 'if you get my daughter pregnant before the wedding, I will kill you' talk I received from your father last week." David said calmly. Okay, now Quinn wanted the earth to collapse beneath her.

"And you haven't gone screaming into the hills yet?" Jane asked laughing.

"If the twins haven't intimidated me, I doubt her father will." David answered as he kissed her on the cheek. That was the only thing that kept her from running.

"Okay, this one's definitely a keeper." Jane said. Quinn just happened to agree.

* * *

As she sat in the green room for her first public appearance of the day, she couldn't help but wonder which meal yesterday was more uncomfortable. First, there was this highly uncomfortable lunch with Jane at some high-end bistro down the street. Quinn wasn't sure what was worse, Jane's sex jokes or her trying to push Quinn to do a Lawndale base version of America Splendora. Also after maybe a few too many glasses of wine, Quinn may have accidentally told Jane what Trent accidentally told her. Apparently, her sister has yet to tell her best friend about the entire thing. Jane was not happy.

Because Jane was not happy, the semi-family dinner essentially imploded in grand Barksdale style, putting the explosion that occurred the last time her mother got together with her sisters to shame. (For situations like these, Jane is an honorary Morgendorffer sister.)

Before they could even get to the first course, Jane yelled at Daria for not telling her about losing the baby. Daria yelled at Quinn for telling Jane about the miscarriage. She then yelled at her husband for telling Quinn about the miscarriage. Then Quinn yelled at her sister for not telling her about the miscarriage. David tried to calm her down but somehow instead everyone found out about the pregnancy scare that occurred right when she found out about the whole Jonathan thing. Both Daria and Jane yelled at her for not telling them about that.

At this point, David tried to intervene again but Nikki quickly pulled him away already very familiar with Barksdale-Morgendorffer screaming matches. Quinn is pretty sure they escaped to the pizza bar four blocks over but she was okay with it because David brought her back a slice of real New York pizza. Unlike a normal Barksdale sisters' arguments that usually ends in alcohol and tears, Barksdale-Morgendorffer(-Lane) sister arguments end in coffee and snide comments about the cookies. Also, all hugging was reserved for private, if such hugging were to occur.

She's glad that they prefer coffee to alcohol because Quinn isn't completely sure she could handle today's interview if she was hung over. She knew it wasn't going to be pretty the moment that she saw the introductory package. Even though her publicist specifically requested that no images of Jonathan be used, they included him anyway. Actually, they had the audacity to use stuff from the wedding. They also dedicated half the introduction piece to her divorce. She was currently trying to keep her anger in checked by imagining the way she would tell her publicist that she was never coming on the show again.

It just got worse from there. It was probably her fault for not specifying that Anna should be the one interviewing her. At least, she is actually a journalist. Instead, she was stuck with the pompous Matthew. Quinn thinks of him as a slightly more talented Sandi Richardson. All the questions were either about her ex-husband, his new girlfriend, or her new boyfriend. Every time she tried to talk about the new book, he would bring the conversation back to her personal life. By the third question about Jonathan, she had enough. It was time for her to utilize the Daria Bryant technique to deal with the annoying.

"If I was here to sell a biography about myself, I would have no trouble talking about my personal life but I'm here to talk about a work of fiction that has nothing to do with Jonathan Star."

"The public has a right…" Matthew tried to interrupt but Quinn wouldn't let him.

"It's my turn to talk. I'm sure everybody is tired of hearing your voice. Instead of talking about my book that took a lot of energy to write, you want to talk about something that really doesn't matter anymore. No wonder the competition is starting to catch up with you. Robin is a much better person than you. I should have gone on her show. See, she would ask one question about what happened and move on. You on the other hand, keep asking me about something that really doesn't matter. What you couldn't come up with any better questions? My husband cheated on me. I divorced him. I'm dating someone else who is a much better person. Now can we please talk about my book?" Quinn said with a fake smile.

The weatherman had the good sense to break through and switch to the weather at that point. Anna apologized later via Twitter. She sent a private message to Quinn herself and not her public account. Quinn wasn't surprised that Anna was talented enough to figure out the truth, only that she did not go public with that information.

Apparently, most of America thought that Matthew was a complete ass for the way he treated her. According to Kat, she was trending. In an effort to regain good will Mr. Matthew sent her an obviously fake and very public apology that he sent to a woman from Nebraska who happened to share her pen name. The move was unable to help him. Quinn sincerely wished they would get rid of him but when the ratings continue to go south, they'll probably blame Anna and she'll be the one fired.

After that disaster, they went for coffee and Quinn was able to get ready for the next wave of interviews. The next two days were filled with them. Things went slightly better on  _The Chat,_  because the personal questions were related to the Ashley Foundation and why she started it. She talked about Tiffany and one of Chloe's old friends in Malibu, who had the same issue. She was okay with that. At least, talking about Tiffany would do some good. What did airing her dirty laundry with Jonathan really accomplish?

The interview with MTV also concentrated on the Ashley Foundation and her new book. However, some questions about David came up. David and she had a long talk about the effects of him being a celebrity boyfriend. They both agreed that it would be better if they went public instead of having the paparazzi follow them around. That way it would be less likely that someone may discover the truth before Quinn was ready to go public.

Her favorite was the Political Comedy Show. Bianca was so mad that she didn't get to come for that taping. That was like her favorite show. John gave her M&M's as he asked her questions about the political motivations behind her latest book. After the interview, she was able to get an autograph for Bianca. During the limo back to Jane's house, David pointed out how ironic it was that the person who asked the best questions about her book and the one most likely to read it happened to be the comedian.

Monique said the same thing when she called late that night to check on the twins. Thankfully, they have not caused any property damage or anything else. The only thing she was concerned about was Chloe and Alexis speaking to each other again.

After that taping, she finally was able to ditch Melody for the night and they went clubbing with Jane. By clubbing, she means they went to a place where she wouldn't have been caught dead in high school and David spent most of the evening hiding in a corner nursing a beer. She may or may not have recreated a certain scene in her last book involving oral sex in a club bathroom. It's amazing the fun things you can do when you're not crowded by teenagers. A night of uninterrupted grown up fun time was exactly what she needed.

The next day involved jogging around Jane's neighborhood and exclusive tour of Jane's new exhibit. Daria was there for that and made various snide comments that Quinn just cannot repeat before they headed out for breakfast. Thankfully, that went better than the dinner a few days before and her sister said various nice things about her new boyfriend. Apparently, Daria approved of her dating a guy who actually understood her literary references. Thankfully, David was not there for any of this craziness.

Her brother-in-law decided that breakfast would be a good time to interrogate her boyfriend. Quinn is not entirely sure where they went but at least he came back sober.

David went with her to have lunch with her favorite wedding dress designer Sierra Vera. She actually had sketches for the pirate theme wedding. Quinn didn't know whether to laugh or scream. Although looking at some of the designs, Quinn wondered if Jane had a hand in the work and this was all some sort of joke.

"Him, I like." Sierra said when David went to the restroom. "This one is much more your equal."

"However, contrary to whatever my children told you, I'm not planning on getting married anytime soon." Quinn explained.

"Is this because of Jonathan?" Sierra asked. Why did she have to know so many intuitive people? "He was never right for you and he was essentially an opportunistic bastard."

"Why didn't anybody tell me that before we got married?" Quinn said as she went straight for her wine glass.

"You were to love blind to see it." Sierra said simply. "If we told you, you wouldn't have believed us. You had to see who he was for yourself."

Quinn would have liked to argue otherwise but Quinn knew that she had a point. She was too blind at the time to see anything.

"You may be right. I was not in love with Jonathan, I was in love with who I thought he was. That is why I'm not rushing into things this time. I can honestly say that I do love David. Also, unlike with Jonathan, I know that David is not perfect. Sometimes, he can be a complete ass. Underneath that, he does have a good heart. He actually helps with the dishes and with the girl's homework. He's not intimidated by Bianca or my father. He can even deal with my mother." Quinn then went on to explain his birthday present to her and everything else that happened that night.

"He seems like a keeper." She said after Quinn was done.

"He is, I just don't want to rush things. I mean, I barely knew Jonathan for six months before we were engaged. It wasn't even a full year before we were married. That marriage lasted just months. I don't want a repeat of that." Quinn said.

"I know you don't want to hear this but Jonathan was only with you to further his career. You and I both know that's true. He didn't know you. According to Chloe, David knew you when you were and I quote, 'a self-absorbed fashion obsessed teenager'. If he liked you then, than we all know he really likes you now. Jonathan Start took two years of your life, don't let him take the rest of it."

The conversation ended then when David returned. Wedding talk was avoided for the majority of the night, except when David jokingly suggested that they do a Starbucks theme wedding because she spent so much time there and that was where they met again. A part of Quinn wondered if he was half-serious.

* * *

What happened to her dress should have been a harbinger of how bad the night was going to be. Jane's little crazy dog named Jackson Pollick managed to destroy her dress and one of Jane's paintings. It was now covered in multi colored paw prints. Thankfully, Quinn was friends with a fashion designer and could look good in anything. The cream dress was more her style than Melody's but she was just glad that she didn't have to wear one of Jane's more bohemian outfits.

She dazzled on the carpet and managed to avoid the most stupid paparazzi questions. Britney was there covering the entire thing for her blog. She was one of the few reporters allowed inside. Quinn was shocked when she hugged David. Apparently, he was responsible for Brittany actually passing high school. (The man has the patience of a saint.) Britney also confirmed her suspicions that the twins told her all about her new boyfriend. Somebody was not going to get there iPad this summer.

Brittany approved of David and promised not to publish anything about the disaster that was his almost marriage to she-who-will-not-be-named. Britney said that she owed him that much for teaching her how to study. They made plans to do lunch when Britney was in town next week.

Apparently, she was coming down to visit her brother, who was a member of the Lawndale Police Department. Considering what she heard about the mouse incident, she was surprised that he was not in jail himself.

The formal part of the dinner went well. It paid to have a date who was actually intelligent and who could keep up with her. David was the perfect date. He was okay with her being in the spotlight and didn't try to jump in front of her or promote his latest project. He was also quite helpful talking to some of the people at the fundraiser. Because of his work with young people, he was very familiar with the issues that the Ashley Foundation worked on. He was able to draw from his personal experiences and manage to get some of the most Scrooge like people to write big checks. Also, unlike the night before, he actually danced with her.

"I thought you didn't dance?" She said when he began to twirl her around after several long drawn out speeches that she wished she didn't have to listen to.

"Last night wasn't dancing. That was jumping around to noise that may or may not be able to be classified as music." He quipped.

"You obviously never went to a Mystik spiral concert back in the day. Compared to that, anything is music." Quinn said smiling. During her last year of high school, she was dragged to many concerts that she would not have went to on her own by Lindy.

"I was forced to take ballroom lessons by my sister-in-law." David said referring to the woman who left him at the altar. He only refers to the gold digger as the 'sister-in-law' and the mother of his niece and nephew. He says he tries to think of her like that, so he doesn't get overcome by bitterness. All things considered, he really does love his niece and nephew.

"Her loss, is my gain. It's good to have somebody for these things." Quinn said pulling closer to him. It felt wonderful being in his arms like this.

"How many charity balls do you do?" David asked with a smirk, as his hands went a little bit lower.

"A lot, that's actually one of my favorite things to do." She hated normal celebrity things but she always felt comfortable at things like the Ashley Foundation dinner.

"Of course, it would be your favorite thing. You love getting dressed up." David said with a laugh.

"No, I like getting dressed up for a good cause. Other times, it's just annoying."

"Of course," David said with half a smirk,

"This is kind of normal for me. Although, I have cut down because I'm in Maryland right now. I'm sure I'll be attending various galas in DC next season." Kat was already getting lots of invitations now that certain people knew that Miss Powers has relocated to the Metro to work on her next book.

"So you're planning to stay in Lawndale for a while?" David seemed hopeful as he asked.

"I think I am just tired of LA and Malibu. I miss being able to walk to places. The girls fit in better here than they did there. At least, they have real friends here, even after the fashion club debacle." Despite everything, her children seem to be a lot happier here.

"So you're not running away as soon as your father is better?" He asked.

"Well, you see there was this guy that I met. I knew him from high school but he just wasn't interested at the time, because I was still a conceded little nightmare. Now that we are both adults and I finally decided to develop a personality, I think there might be something there." She said with a smirk.

"I don't think it was you developing a personality, it was more you no longer being jailbait." David said laughing. He tried to pass it off as a joke but it was probably true. Unfortunately, she didn't get to find out because the moment was interrupted by a certain uninvited guest.

"Can I cut in?" Asked the voice that Quinn would unfortunately remember anywhere, she had to literally restrain herself from saying, "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Sorry Jonathan, I promised my boyfriend exclusivity tonight. I am sure that word is not even in your vocabulary." She snapped before deciding it was best to get the hell away from him. He wasn't worth her time. "I also feel like punch now." She said as an excuse to get away from him. She went straight for the bar. She would get something alcoholic but she needed sobriety right now. Whoever let Jonathan into this was so fired, (unless it was Kat, who she can forgive mostly for her awesome cookies.) Unfortunately, you know who followed behind her. Thankfully, she had David to protect her from the idiot.

"So you're the infamous Jonathan." David said saving her again. That gave her time to get far enough away so she could watch the whole thing from a safe distance.

"Melody talks about me a lot?" He asked smirking.

"Not really, but her daughters did. Bianca told me about how you would never help her with homework or anything else. Bianca also said something about you attempting to send the girls off to military school. I'm sure you know what Chloe told me about." Jonathan almost looked ill by that point. "Essentially, they both think that you are an absolute prick."

"No Child likes their step father. Besides, they weren't even her children." Now that just made her furious. Again, she wished she knew that before she screwed him or rather he screwed her over. That's when she decided to intervene.

"Just because I didn't give birth to Bianca and Chloe does not mean that I'm not their mother. Mothers are the ones who kiss boo-boos and scare the monsters away from under the bed. I was doing that long before Lindsay died. Now, I'm dealing with best friend betrayal and college applications. They are my children. Besides if it wasn't for your current girlfriend, the girls wouldn't be orphans." There was no way she was going to be quiet on that. Thankfully, Jonathan didn't have the balls to defend himself from that accusation.

"The girls adore David." That was a completely true statement. "They were the ones who got us together."Quinn said with a wicked grin.

"Are you going to tell the story of how you and David got back together?" Brittney said with her trademark hair twirling. Quinn now knows she does this to make people like Jonathan under estimate her. She knew that Britney was there to rescue her from Jonathan. Probably unlike anyone else there, except for maybe Jane and her sister, no one else knew how much Jonathan actually put her through. Her sister and Jane were a few feet away watching cautiously. Actually, she thinks that they are waiting for the carnage to truly begin, so they could take pictures. Jane and her sister still appreciated a good train wreck and this was turning into the ultimate wreck.

"Back together?" Jonathan asked very confused. "You two know each other? Why are you even here? This is close to the press." He asked Brittany when he noticed that Britney was hugging her. Jonathan didn't like Brittany at all, mostly because she turned him down and tarnished his image with accurate reporting.

"We went to high school together and I was good friends with her sister. David and Quinn dated in high school but her mom was really against it because of the age difference. I'm sure you remember how Helen is." Jonathan winced at her words.

"It wasn't about the age difference, it was because she interrupted a certain incident in the dining room. Hello, Jonathan. I would say it was nice to see you again but I don't believe in lying." Daria said with her trademark tone as she interrupted. Jonathan received a glare that could cut a normal person to shreds.

"Is that what inspired page 172 or page 242? I'm thinking about painting that scene from my next installation." Jane asked joining the conversation. Quinn decided it would be best to play along.

"My prude of an editor made me take out what really happened. It was fun at the time though." That was kind of true. The original version was toned down. Also, certain things that happened on the limo ride their will be utilized in the next book. It turns out reality is much more fun than anything she could've wrote in her books.

"What are they talking about?" Jonathan asked in total confusion.

"He doesn't know?" Britney asked innocently still twirling her hair. "I thought everybody knew that  _Tutor for the Heart_ was about David. I knew and I was barely friends with you back then." Later, she is going to have to figure out how Britney really knew that but she is sure that Bianca was the responsible party. It didn't matter because Jonathan seemed absolutely shocked. Quinn wished she had a camera but she wasn't allowed to bring her cell phone with her, besides a bag would completely ruin the ensemble. Thankfully, Jane took care of it for her.

"I was hoping I would get to meet you. I personally want to thank you for screwing up. If you didn't sleep with that very young costar in your wife's bed, we would have never had a second chance. Thank you for being a moron."Jonathan was seething at David's words. If it wasn't for the intervention of a wait staff member who pulled Quinn and David out for a phone call, she was sure that Jonathan was actually going to hit him.

"I'm sorry about that. I have no idea how we got here. Even taking Jonathan's money for a good cause is not worth dealing with his presence." Quinn apologized to her boyfriend as they followed the waiter.

"I can have security remove him?" The waiter suggested.

"That's not necessary. You did enough with the fake phone call."

“Actually, you really do have a phone call at the front desk. Your daughter Bianca said it was urgent."

"I hope nobody got arrested." She said out loud as various worst case scenarios ran through her head.

"Just leave the idiot alone for now. We'll be leaving in a few minutes anyway." She said not wanting Jonathan to go to the press and claim that she kicked him out of the event. She just needed to be the bigger person.

"Don't you have to make another spectacular speech?" David asked.

"No and besides, it wouldn't matter if I did, my kids always come first." She said starting to get worried.

"If more parents were like you, I probably would have less work. David said as his cell phone when off.

"Why did you get to keep your phone?" Quinn asked in annoyance.

"Because the event planner was afraid that yours would go off again during your speech if you were allowed to bring it with you."

"It happened one time during an interview and they never let you forget it." Quinn said as she grabbed the white courtesy phone as David answered his.

"Please just tell me that nobody was arrested?" Quinn said immediately as Bianca picked up.

"No, Chloe just locked herself in Mr. Lane's bathroom and she won't stop crying. It has been 40 minutes already." She was worried. Mostly because Bianca thought the situation was severe enough that she looked up the phone number for the hotel and had her literally pulled out of the banquet.

"What happened?"

"Ashley called about 45 minutes ago in hysterical tears. At the same time, Dr. Lane got a phone call from my boss." That worried her but when she was standing at a semipublic phone she didn't have time for all the details, especially considering her boyfriend is now about as pale as her dress.

"Bianca, I would love to hear all the details of what happened as soon as I get my cell phone out of lock up from the overbearing party planner. Just give me the basics right now."

"Alexis tried to kill herself because her mom is a bitch and Chloe blames herself. Now she won't leave the bathroom." Okay, now she realizes why David was so quiet. He must be getting the same phone call.

"Fuck!" Because really, there is nothing else that can be said at a time like this.


	15. Part 12: Parenting 501

There are phone calls that everyone dreads. Unfortunately, Quinn has had quite a few of those. The first was when her dad finally told her that he and her mother were getting divorced. Quinn will never forget the way his voice sounded. It was like he was surrendering against his will. She was always sure that he was on the verge of tears during that conversation. In hindsight, she feels bad for blaming him when she knew full well it was her mother that destroyed that marriage.

The second time was when Tiffany died. Her dad called her because Tiffany's father just wasn't able to. He was still a mess when the funeral came. He was lifeless. They say the hardest thing to do in the universe is to bury your child. She hopes she never finds out if that was true.

She didn't believe her father when he told her. Honestly, she didn't believe him until the viewing. Part of her thought this was one of Sandi's practical jokes. She couldn't believe that any more when she saw Tiffany's lifeless body in the casket. She hoped she doesn't have to see something like that again soon. Another life wasted because of Sandi's sadistic tendencies.

The next time she was the one making the phone call. As soon as the paramedics declared Lindsey dead, Quinn knew what she had to do. No one deserves to find out something like that from TMZ. She called Lindsey's manager first. She remembers hearing broken glass and lots of profanity. When she told the girls, there was lots of crying and throwing things once the denial subsided.

Chloe also locked herself in the bathroom. It seems like nothing has really changed that much in the last few years. She didn't leave for an entire day. Bianca even slept outside the door because she didn't want to be that far. Quinn finally had to call a locksmith to get her out. She hopes she doesn't have to do that this time.

The last time was her father and the heart attack. She is not even sure she believed Helen at first. She remembered time slowing down and all the air disappearing from her lungs.

Now, she got another one of those phone calls. Her daughter sometimes friend and usual enemy tried to kill herself by means that even David will not tell her about. The only clue she had was Charles mentioning that blood was everywhere in his voice mail to Kat.

According to various sources, Stacy was the one who found her. Thankfully, she still had a pulse and was currently being worked on by the trauma team at LMC. According to the last update from Monique, she was still in critical condition but they are optimistic.

Why Alexis did whatever she did, no one really knows. There was no suicide note. She gathered that much from a conversation she overheard between David and Monique. Bianca did break into her sisters e-mail account to find a very cryptic goodbye e-mail from Alexis. Under any other circumstance, she would ground Bianca for such an invasion of privacy (that may be illegal in multiple states) but under the circumstances, it was necessary.

Stacy is not available for questioning, even if she would be the best source for information. Because of the shock of everything, she went into premature labor. According to a short text message that she got from Charles, they were trying to stop it but it's looking more and more likely that baby Tiffany will be born before David and Quinn make it back.

They were almost in Delaware on the long way back to Maryland. It was too late in the day to get a train and she was able to convince her brother-in-law to let her borrow one of his cars. It was an emergency after all. She is really thankful that she never got a chance to drink anything alcoholic at the fundraiser right now. Although, Quinn is sure that the circumstances alone would sober her up quite quickly. (Being the wonderful assistant that she is, Kat offered to stay behind to smooth things over. She would be on the first train out in the morning.)

Chloe was still crying in the Lane bathroom, according to the last call 20 minutes ago. No one has successfully managed to get her out, not even her father. Quinn tried to use her mom voice via speakerphone but it just didn't have the same effect. She tried to call a locksmith but they refused to come out until morning. Monique was at the hospital dealing with everything and therefore wasn't able to help get a teenager out of the bathroom. This is an absolute mess.

When they get to Delaware, Quinn stopped at the travel plaza for coffee and to relieve her blader. People look at her strangely because she is still wearing her white ball gown (the crazy wig was gone) despite the fact that the place was mostly deserted by that time of night. She takes a seat on the horrible plastic chairs as she tries to call Bianca one more time. Why can't the Starbucks have its own comfortable seating? In situations like these, she needs the comfort of a Starbucks couch.

Nothing has changed since her last urgent phone call, except Chloe's not actively crying anymore. That's progress at least.

David seems 1,000,000 miles away from her as he takes the offered cup of coffee and cinnamon bun bites. He might as well be on the phone again. The last 3 hours have been agonizing. She can't help but think back to almost eight years ago when Tiffany died. It was not a suicide in the traditional sense but looking back on it now it doesn't seem that different.

It doesn't help that David was on the phone whispering to various people for the entire drive so far. She doesn't understand why he's trying to be so secretive, she already knows what's going on. She is not completely clueless as to what her boyfriend does for a living. She normally respects the right to privacy of his patients, even when they're her own daughters, but right now she has a right to know what the fuck is going on. Not only is this hurting her daughter, this is hurting the man that she loves. She hates seeing him this broken.

"You know it's okay if you want to scream or cry right now." She said as she took another drink of her coffee. She knew that they needed to be on the road again as soon as possible but she didn't want to have this conversation while driving. "One of your patients just tried to kill herself. You can be upset."

"I'm upset. I should have been there." David said playing with the cinnamon bun.

"I feel the same way. If I was there, Chloe wouldn't have locked herself in a room. She did the same thing when Lindsay died." David responded by squeezing her hand.

"What happened wasn't your fault. It doesn't make you a bad parent."

"Why do you always know what I'm thinking?” She asked him with a sleepy smile.

"I blame it on all the time in psychiatry school. At least, I learn something." He almost sounded bitter. She knows he's blaming himself for what happened when he shouldn't.

"If I am not allowed to blame myself for what happened, you cannot either. What happened doesn't make you a bad doctor." Quinn said deciding that he needed more physical contact and she put an arm completely around him

"Yes, but if I was there maybe this would not have happened."

"I know you checked all of your voicemail and e-mail accounts to see if there was a message from Alexis. There was nothing there. If she wanted to get a hold of you, she would have. This speculating is useless. We will not know anything until we talked to her."

"That is if she wakes up." David said not looking at her as he plays with his coffee cup. Quinn feels like it is time for the two to get back to the car.

"Do you want to try to talk about something happier?" She asked as she gets up from the chair and David follows her outside. "I enjoyed the humiliation of my ex-husband."

"He deserved it. I would love to know how he got in." David said as his voice became lighter.

"I'm pretty sure that the evil party planner, who took away my phone, is a fan girl and let him stay on the guest list even though I said specifically that I did not want him there." Quinn said getting the key out of her purse. "Did you not see how she was falling all over him when I went back in there to get my cell phone?"

"She reminds me of my fan club at the high school." David said as he sat down in the passenger seat and put on his seatbelt.

"Except they have more respect." Quinn said as she sat in her seat.

"Maybe, you should just let the moron be there. If anybody should be giving you money for charity, it's him. He wouldn't be anything without you."

"As I stated earlier, spending time with him is not worth any amount of money, despite it being for a good cause. Besides he doesn't have enough money to satisfy me." Quinn said pulling out of the travel plaza.

* * *

They talk about a lot of silly things for the next hour or at least they did after she got tired of the radio. No one wants to hear  _Adam's Song_  at a time like this. Before she knew it, they were finally getting off the exit to her neighborhood. Because Alexis was still unconscious, it was decided that it would be better for her to check up on Chloe.

Besides maybe, it will give both some insight into what happened. They still didn't have an answer as to why Alexis tried to kill herself.

Trent was waiting for both when they pulled up to the driveway.

"Has anything changed?" David asked as the couple walked inside the house.

"Mo called an hour ago. Alexis is in serious but stable condition and your friend Stacy gave birth to a healthy baby girl 20 minutes ago. She was a little on the small side but her lungs are good". At that, Quinn let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "They're calling her Tiffany something. I don't know the rest of her name." Of course, he couldn't remember the rest. Some things never change.

"What about Chloe?" Quinn asked.

"She's still in the bathroom. Even the promise of Five Chicks hamburgers could not get her out." Quinn was sure it was her dad who tried that considering he was currently sleeping on Trent's couch.

"I had to take a whiz in the bushes outside." Despite the seriousness of the situation, Quinn was trying really hard not to laugh.

"I thought you guys had two bathrooms?” Quinn mumbled to herself.

"We did but my dad destroyed one of them when he tried to turn it into a dark room again. He doesn't like digital cameras. That's the other reason why most of my family is not allowed to come here." Quinn was not sure how to respond.

"Well as long as it was the back bushes." David said with a deadpan expression to rival her sister.

"Oh yeah, that probably would've been a good idea. That explains why the neighbors called Mo." Quinn was literally biting her tongue by that point.

"That reminds me, Mo wants you to call her. She also said something about an emergency teacher's meeting tomorrow about 10 AM or maybe it was 11 AM. You need to prepare something called a code 11 or maybe it was code 13. You better ask her." If it wasn't for sleep deprivation, David would have something smart to add to that. Right now, he was doing good just to be standing upright.

"I will do that as soon as we can get Chloe out of the bathroom." That's when David grabbed her hand and dragged her up the stairs as Trent disappeared into the kitchen.

"It's moments like these, that I start to believe the teachers room talk about Trent only having his job because he's sleeping with the principal." David said quietly.

"Despite him being a halfway competent music teacher. He can handle Bianca. The girl made Mr. Barch-O'Neill cry and she's not even in his class." Quinn said in his defense.

"That's why I am only now starting to believe the rumors." They stopped talking when they saw Bianca sleeping in front of the bathroom door. Quinn didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that. She wished she could take a picture. Bianca would never live this down again.

"Wake up baby." Quinn said in a whisper as she stroked her daughter's hair. "You're too big for me to carry now." When Lindsay died she was still on the tiny side and Quinn could actually carry her to the bedroom. Not now.

"Five more minutes, I don't even have class today." Again, she was biting her tongue to prevent laughing.

"You don't have to wake up but you can't stay here." She said as she pulled Bianca off the floor and somehow she managed to walk the semiconscious girl into one of the spare bedrooms. Within a few seconds, Bianca was asleep again in a room that obviously belonged to Jane in a previous life. There were paint splatters everywhere.

"Considering she's not crying anymore, I say that she's probably asleep." David said when Quinn returned to the bathroom.

"Probably, do you have a credit card?" Quinn asked not really remembering where her purse was at the moment.

"You're going to break into the bathroom?" He asked incredulously as he started to give Quinn her purse.

"I have to try something." She said digging around in the bag.

"There's no need for that. I have the key." Trent said from behind her. Both she and David were looking at him as if he were crazy.

"There was this incident with my brother after his last divorce. Mo thought it was best." Okay, now Quinn really wonders why those two are still married.

"You had the key to the bathroom this entire time and you let her stay in there?" David asked with worry in his voice.

"She's perfectly safe in there. After an incident with my mother, we keep all the drugs in a safe that only Mo has the combination for. That's the third reason Monique doesn't let most of my family come over." Again, she and David share that same look.

"Mom always let Summer stay in there when she locked herself in the bathroom. I checked on her a couple of times after she fell asleep. I also put a blanket and some snacks in there." This is a prime example of the Trent Lane School of parenting. He is very laid back but he also cares. Considering how he was raised, Quinn believes that is a small miracle.

"Your mom also let you live in the backyard for two months. In addition, she is the reason why your wife locks up the Tylenol. Did you ever think that it may not be best to follow her parenting advice?" Quinn said remembering some of her very weird conversations with Jane about absentee parents. She used some of it in  _Tutor for the Heart_.

"I know, that's why I checked up on her and brought a blanket. After talking to your dad and Bianca, we thought it was best to just let her sleep. Also, it may have taken me a couple of hours to remember that we now have keys for the bathroom." Okay, that Quinn could believe.

"You're probably right about letting her sleep." Quinn said as she opened the door. As suspected Chloe was lying down in the bathtub covered with the handmade blanket. With her pale skin, the tear tracks were quite visible.

"Let's carry her to one of the bedrooms." Quinn said in a whisper as not to wake up the sleeping girl. The three adults slowly carried her into the master bedroom at Trent's suggestion. She seemed so small lying in a sea of purple comforters. Quinn could easily see the young girl she met for the first time nearly 10 years ago. Quinn quickly lay down next to her little girl and wrapped an arm around her. David was on her other side giving her strength. She wanted to cry.

"Mommy," Chloe called out as Quinn stroked her hair.

"I'm here baby." Chloe falls into her chest at her reassuring words

"It's my fault." Chloe said still half asleep as tears began to fall. "She is gone and it is my fault." Chloe was shaking now as Quinn held her tighter. David moved to the other side to comfort her.

"It's not your fault. Alexis had issues long before you two even met." David whispered but the tears don't stop.

"She's not gone yet." Quinn added thinking that it was the only thing that could stop this breakdown. The tears keep falling regardless.

"It's still my fault," Chloe told both sobbing harder now.

"It's no one's fault." Quinn tells her this as she continues to rock her. Her heart is breaking in two.

"Can you just tell us what happened?" Quinn asked in a whisper. Her response is more crying.

"Why do you think it's your fault that Alexis tried to kill herself?" David asked not sugarcoating anything. He doesn't use his doctor tone but rather he sounded a lot like Jake in that moment. These are the words and actions of a concerned father. This is punctuated by the fact that he is rubbing soothing circles on Chloe's back.

She thought back to her words earlier to Jonathan. They could just as easily apply to a man. Fatherhood was about scraped knees and making the monsters go way. David is dealing with a lot of monsters right now. She thinks of the old saying anyone can be a sperm donor but it takes a real man to be a father. David is definitely a real man.

"She wouldn't have done anything if Sandi didn't tell her that she hated her and wanted nothing to do with her because of who she is." Chloe choked out between sobs.

Why did Quinn have a feeling that she already knew where this was going? Judging by the expression on David's face, he already had a pretty good idea.

"Why did Sandi yell at her and what do you have to do with that?" That was when Chloe started crying louder, if such a thing where possible. Quinn just knew what was going on. Nobody gets that worked up over somebody who's just a friend war enemy for that matter.

"Alexis is not just a friend or frienemy is she?" Quinn asked quietly waiting for an answer that she is not completely ready for.

"She's sort of my girlfriend." As cliché as it sounds, one could literally hear a pin drop at that point, Quinn wasn't even sure she was breathing.

Is she surprised that her daughter is not heterosexual? Not really. She has kind of expected it for a while. Now is she surprised that her daughter had something going on with Alexis? Actually, she's not that surprised, even though she should be. The signs were there. Quinn knew that she was not witnessing a normal friendship break up. Chloe spent too much time crying for it to be that. It also explained why Chloe was so angry at her friends for ditching her because they thought her mom was a lesbian.

"I wish you would have told me. I really don't care who you are dating, as long as she or he actually cares about you." Quinn told her daughter, leaving out how she wondered how Alexis could care about anybody. Then again, Stacy's description of the girl doesn't match Quinn's preconception that the girl was the second coming of Sandi G.

"Unfortunately, not everybody is like you mom. Remember Grandma Snow? She reminds me a lot of Alexis' stepmother. Sandi only wants perfection and Alexis' just desires her love by whatever means necessary. She just wanted a Mom, despite the sacrifice. Unlike my biological mother, she did not marry some guy to make everyone else happy, she just made herself miserable." Quinn wanted say that is because Sandi is a bitch, but this is not the time. She also wanted to say that Lindsey made herself miserable too, but again it just was not the time.

"You better start at the beginning." Quinn said as Chloe essentially lay nestled between her and David.

"Can you just tell mom everything?" Chloe asked with pleading eyes to her former therapist.

"I can't do that." David said as his grip on her tightened.

"You are like the worst therapist ever." Chloe said with a pout.

"I'm not really your doctor anymore." David said softly.

"More like future father in training." Chloe quipped. Quinn noticed that she didn't use stepfather. "So did you guys work on my brand new brother or sister in New York?" This was an obvious diversionary tactic.

"I'm slightly disturbed that you'd rather talk about your parents having sex than about the situation with Alexis. You need to tell your mom what happened." David said firmly.

"Okay," Chloe said with resignation. "Alexis' and I were never really friends. There was always a different type of tension there and we recognized it, eventually. We were fooling around a little by my second week here, it started after she kissed me in the dressing room at Junior Five." Quinn wasn't sure she wanted to know what "fooling around" meant. Unlike her, Lindsey lost her virginity around 13. Really, why couldn't they take after her and wait until they were in their twenties? She wasn't ready for her kids having sex, even if she did buy the girls condoms. She was just a realistic person who didn't want grandkids.

"No, I'm not going to elaborate. It was a bit on the explosive side. Anyway, Sandi was a little suspicious about all the time we were spending behind closed doors. She also said some nasty things about mommy Lindsey's sexual preferences. Alexis freaked out and…" Chloe started crying so hard that she couldn't continue.

"Alexis' set you up for shoplifting?" David prompted and Chloe slowly nodded her head as she composed herself.

"Yes, she also sent a really nasty breakup letter that I never showed you." Quinn wondered if that was the other e-mail of interest that Bianca found in Chloe's inbox. Would it be a total invasion of privacy if she read it?

"Things just got really bad there. Alexis was doing all sorts of things to get back in to Sandi's favor, including turning all our friends against me. I didn't know if I was more upset because I lost my girlfriend or because my supposed friends abandoned me because they were cowards." In a weird way, Quinn could understand what Alexis did. It wasn't that different than her pretending her sister was her cousin. They were both worried about what everyone else would think.

Quinn also remembered all the emails that she and Joey exchanged in college when he was freaking out over the fact that he was starting to enjoy looking at guys as much as she did. He cried a lot that semester. At least, he had her. Alexis had no one. It was obvious because her so-called friends were willing to abandon Chloe so quickly, due to the pressure of their parents because her mother was a lesbian. (She shuddered to think what they would do when they find out that Chloe was not heterosexual.)

Alexis’ parents didn't give a fuck. According to Stacy the biological mother disappeared a long time ago. Her father would rather pay Stacy child support than deal with Alexis himself. All things considered, the so-called friends deserved her anger more.

"After the incident where both her parents forgot her birthday, she came clean and told me everything in a very tear filled voice mail. We were not really back together but I missed her. Now that she was living with Stacy, she was starting to be the person she was behind closed doors all the time. She was no longer trying to be a shadow of Sandi. Things were going so well, that I told her I would give her a second chance a few days ago." Chloe said with a sniffle.

"Okay, so what happened?" David asked because Quinn really wanted to ask, 'Why didn't you tell me you were dating?' However, common sense kicked in before she could completely alienate her daughter.

"We were at the mall together after school today or rather yesterday at this point. It wasn't even like we were holding hands or making out. We were just there together. Unfortunately, we ran into Mrs. Richardson and her country club friends." Chloe just broke down in tears as she continued. "She said things to Alexis that I can't even repeat." Chloe's sobs became harder again.

"I need to know what she said!" David asked gently. It took awhile for Chloe to calm down enough to repeat Sandi's exact words. The cruelty of it didn't surprise Quinn at all. She was well familiar with the hate that is Sandi Richardson. Quinn will not repeat what was said exactly, although it did remind her a lot of what that anti-gay church said that protested outside of Lindsey's funeral or certain conversations that she had the pleasure of listening to involving grandma Snow. Let's just say the D word and the F word were used liberally, along with other gay slurs. In addition, Sandy said something about her stepdaughter going to hell, which was funny because Sandi was never that religious, in high school or at all. Then again, Stacy did mention that Sandi tried to appeal to the "family values crowd". Sandi finished her tirade by saying she was glad that Alexis' wasn't her biological daughter in the most nasty way possible.

"I'm sure your sister probably told you this, but you are not responsible for the stupidity of others. Despite not kissing or showing any affection to Alexis, Sandi went off. It's not your fault." Quinn said and David quickly backed her up with more wise words.

"Then why does it feel like it is?" Chloe asked both her and David.

"Because you are a caring and compassionate person," David told her.

"No matter what, I'm always going to love you." Quinn added almost wondering if she should have said "we" instead of "I". It seemed very true in that moment.

"I love you too mommy. Thank you David." She said kissing both on the cheek.

"Is Alexis going to be okay?" Chloe asked after a moment.

"She is stable." Quinn felt it was in her best interest to leave out the critical part. She wanted her 16-year-old daughter the fall back asleep.

"Can we go there now?" Both she and David shook their head no. Chloe didn't need to see that right now.

"In a few hours I will take you there baby." Quinn kissed her daughter on the forehead.

"Ok," Chloe responded. A few minutes later, she was finally asleep. David successfully managed to untangle himself without waking her up.

"You're going to the hospital." Quinn said it as a statement because she just knew him too well.

"Yes. I need to be there, Alexis is still my patient. Don't worry, I will ask Trent to drive me because I'm too sleep deprived to drive." David said as he leaned over to kiss her on the forehead. She knew that she would be sharing David with a lot of other people but she was glad that he stayed with her as long as he did. Besides, she knew that she had a part of him that no one else did.

"I'm also going to call Chloe's doctor and make an appointment for later today." That right there is why she loves this man. She quickly gave him a goodbye kiss that was something out of her novels.

"Thank you for being here. It's good to have a co-parent now."

"I think I like co-parenting with you." David said with a smile as he walked slowly to the door.

"I'll bring you coffee and pastries in a little bit. Are you going to be okay?" She called out after him.

"I will be, it just may take awhile." David said with half a smile.

"This isn't the first time this is happened to you?" Quinn asked.

"Unfortunately, no." Dave it tells Quinn with a sad smile.

"You can't give me any details?" She asked knowing in his type of work that it's very possible.

"Later," He said kissing her goodbye again. Eventually he made it out of the room.

* * *

It was impossible for Quinn to fall asleep. Memories of the day Tiffany died kept playing over and over in her head. She hoped for her daughter's sake that she wouldn't have to bury a friend so young. Then there was the fact that the smell of incense in the bedroom also made her to nauseous to sleep. She should have never wished to get the flu to avoid an interview with the evil one of morning television. She wonders if she is making herself sick psychologically just to avoid it. She has had an upset stomach for days now and has thrown up a couple of times.

At least, Chloe stayed unconscious for another 90 minutes before she forced Quinn to take her to LMC. She tried to get her daughter to go back to sleep but it didn't work. She was too restless.

Quinn let her 16-year-old daughter have a Frappuccino for breakfast, because that was the only thing she was going to keep down. Bianca came too for moral support. It was her sister who got Chloe out of the car after another crying jag.

The trio walked into the ICU waiting room to a scene that reminded her of when all this began last January. It hasn't even really been six months since her father's heart attack and yet they were back in this waiting room. Of course, it's always much worse when it's someone so young. 16 year olds should not be fighting for their lives.

Ashley and Tatiana were there and so was Mr. Richardson. The girls were crying but Mr. Richardson seemed almost dead. There were no tears in his eyes just a sense of loss. Crying would have been better than being completely frozen. She hasn't seen someone seem that dead inside since Tiffany's dad at her funeral.

Monique was off to the side arguing with one of the girl's mother (probably the one who likes to refer to Quinn by the D word). She wasn't doing that well against Monique. Chloe quickly sat down with the rest of the fashion club members and joined in the mutual cry. Bianca stayed behind just glaring at the other two as if to tell them that they better not mess with her sister. From what she could hear between hysterical tears, Chloe repeated the whole story again.

Fortunately, the fashion club girls were a lot more tolerant than she thought or maybe they were just braver now. Maybe, they now understood the true consequences of cruelty or prejudice.

To her surprise, Charles was down there sitting next to the broken Mr. Richardson. Thankfully, the wicked bitch responsible for this mess was nowhere to be seen. If Quinn saw Sandi right now, she would beat the hell out of her despite the consequences. She decided that Charles would be the one most receptive to what she brought from the Starbucks.

"Has there been any change?” Quinn asked as she gave Charles a coffee and a Danish.

"Thank god you brought coffee and food. You are still my second favorite goddess. I don't think I have eaten anything since yesterday." Charles said quickly devouring the Danish.

"That's understandable. If I knew, I would have brought you something more sustainable. How's the baby?" Quinn asked avoiding the elephant name Alexis' in the room.

"Tiffany Alexis was born at 3:03 AM at a wonderful 5 lbs. 2 oz. despite being several weeks early." Charles smiled brightens up the entire room. She's never seen someone that happy before.

"I have pictures." Charles said pulling out his phone. Those were the favorite words of new parents. Even she was known to show off pictures of her children. The baby was adorable, even if she was seven weeks early.

"So why are you down here and not with your wife and newborn?" Quinn asked.

"Stacy's father just got here from Seattle and we don't like each other." Quinn understood perfectly.

"Very few fathers like their son in law." She told him as she began on her own cup of coffee.

"I don't like him because he is an absolute bastard and he doesn't like me because I think his second wife leaving him for a so called best friend was exactly what he deserved after what he did to his first wife and I told him so."

"It's probably best you are down here." Quinn said after a moment of thinking they could give the Barksdale sisters competition in the dysfunctional department.

"Probably, her mom is with her anyway and that makes the situation already explosive." Quinn knows exactly how bad that situation would be and was glad that they were several floors away.

"Stacy made me come down here to be with Mr. Richardson anyway." It's obvious that he should not be alone. He has not even touched the Danish that Quinn gave him several moments ago.

"What about Alexis?" Charles got up from the couch and motions for her to follow him to the hallway at her question.

"I don't want to talk about it in front of Mr. Richardson. He's an absolute mess. He blames himself for what happened." Charles said somberly.

"So does Chloe. I spent most of last night driving down from New York to get her out of a bathroom." Quinn explained.

"That's where she did it." Of course, he didn't elaborate on what it was and she wasn't going to ask. She didn't want to know. "I don't think it's going to be possible to get those blood stains out of the tile. Stacy's never going to want to use the bathroom again."

"My friend Lindy is an interior decorator and can do wonders. I can have it taken care of before Stacy is out of the hospital." Quinn promises.

"That's one less thing to worry about. The good news is that despite the blood loss Alexis' will survive to be interrogated by a team of doctors. Her habit of eating three spinach salads a day helped. Also apparently, things you learn in a new parents' first aid class are applicable to teenagers that slid their wrist. I will never say another bad thing about Stacy forcing me to take that first aid class again." Charles tried to joke that it was just too soon.

"But she's still in ICU?" Quinn asked.

"She is alert but not ready to go to the psych ward yet. Your boyfriend is in there but that's only because he's her doctor. Mr. Richardson tried to see her an hour ago but her heart rate went sky high and her doctor kicked him out. I don't think she wants to see him."

"I don't blame her." Quinn said in a whisper.

"You blame him for what happened. He already blames himself." Charles said sadly.

"He is a contributing factor, if nothing else. And you?"

"I blame him for marrying a complete bitch and thinking with his dick more than his heart. However, she is still his daughter and he is miserable right now." The discussion ended there when they heard lots of shouting from the normally quiet waiting room.

Apparently, one of the fashion mothers was attacking Chloe and essentially blaming her for what happened to Alexis. Apparently, she overheard Chloe's confession to her fashion friends. In seconds, Quinn was standing in front of her daughter wondering if she can get away with knocking the woman unconscious. She was interrupted by the words of a distressed father.

"Get the fuck out of here. You don't belong here." Mr. Richardson said as life returned to his eyes. "Don't blame a child for things that you don't understand. What happened to my daughter was a lot more my fault than anyone else's. I was the one who was never there. I forgot her birthday. You have no right to stand here and attack an innocent teenage girl."

"She's hardly innocent. Do you know what she's been doing with your daughter? She's one of those." Quinn just rolled her eyes.

"I don't care. I will tell you one thing; I would rather have a lesbian for a daughter than a dead daughter."

At that moment, Quinn sincerely wished that Alexis would have been around to hear that.


	16. Part 13: Always Read the Fine Print

Quinn doesn't know how to describe the next few days of her life except with the adjective busy. After Mr. Richardson kicked out the country club contingent, Quinn finally got to see baby Tiffany and Stacy. She's exhausted, but happy to have her baby. Baby Tiffany is adorable and somehow managed to end up with the color of hair that Quinn got from a bottle. Honestly, Stacy was most happy about the fact that Alexis was alive to see said baby girl. That was obvious by the fact that Stacy was most happy when she was finally allowed to see Alexis late that day. Quinn doesn't ask Stacy what she found the day before. She doesn't want her friend to start crying. Besides, they should focus on the good things like the new baby.

The waiting room was relatively calm when she gets back from her initial visit. The fashion club is gone and Chloe and Mr. Richardson speak softly about all the things they wish they did. She gets to see David for a grand total of two minutes, just long enough to fill him in on what happened in the waiting room, before he has to go to a teachers meeting about teen suicide and tolerance.

Another person obviously missing was Sandi. Quinn is not sure if she is happy or upset about that. Part of Quinn thinks that Sandi should be there to see the damage that her words did. Of course, Quinn wonders if she could really comprehend the consequences of what she did. Did she have a heart at all?

Alternatively, Quinn doesn't want to have to call her mom to get anybody out of Jail, including herself. If she saw the bitch, she would knock her unconscious. Mr. Richardson probably feels the same way. Let's put it this way, the only time he has left the hospital since the incident happened was to meet with his new divorce attorney.

Of course, Sandi never showed up, at least, not anytime that Quinn was there with Chloe. Quinn was at the hospital a lot over the next three days. Now, there were two mysterious bouquets of red roses with a note that simply said 'I'm sorry' that arrived at the hospital but there's just no way in Quinn's mind that this came from Sandi. That would actually require her to have a heart. The whole thing made Quinn want to humiliate the hell out of her when she went on her show, if she went on the show.

In addition to not showing up to the hospital, nobody has seen Sandi since the 'incident' Friday. Not even the ‘Country Club Mothers for Intolerance’ as Bianca refers to Sandi's ‘friends’. It's looking more and more likely that her scheme to come out on Sandi's show was going to fall apart.

Between their schedules, the only time she gets to see David is when she drops food and coffee off at his office. He's so busy with the fallout from the Alexis incident, that he would have starved without her. The school district brought in three other counselors to help with the situation but David was in charge of everything. He was trying to put together at least two separate seminars about bullying and acceptance.

When she dropped off food, she would sit and eat with David, even if everything was still making her sick. She will never ever ask to get the flu again just to get out of spending time with Sandi. They say to be careful what you wish for because you may just get it. Despite being ill, she stayed with David because he needed someone to talk to. He may not be able to give her specifics but she likes being his sounding board. She realized it was absolutely crucial for him to have her support right now. Just like Chloe, despite whatever they said, he still blaming himself for what happened.

He was in ok spirits right now although she was sure that's because his patient was still alive. He seemed happier when they were together. That's why she tried to visit whenever possible, even though things were still messy at the moment.

Of course, her main priority right now was Chloe. That first day she spent a lot of time sitting with Chloe in the waiting room. Alexis was not ready for visitors outside of David, Stacy, and Charles. She still won't see her biological father. According to David, Alexis said that Charles was more of a father than he ever was. She also said that at least Charles actually cares and doesn't try to buy her affection with gifts that don't mean anything. Quinn thinks that is why she saw Mr. Richards crying in the hallway with a giant teddy bear in his hands.

On the second, day Alexis agreed to talk to Chloe. Quinn loves her daughter enough to actually respect her privacy and not hang out in the hallway to listen to the conversation even if she really wanted to. The only thing she does was wrap her arms around Chloe when she comes out crying and wordlessly schedules another therapy appointment. On the way back from said therapy appointment, Quinn doesn't ask anything. Right now, Chloe needs silent support. On Tuesday after school, Quinn drove Tatiana and Chloe to the hospital during visiting hours no questions were asked. She doesn't even say anything when she is forced to go to Build-a-Fuzzy Workshop to build Alexis a 'we are thinking about you' fuzzy. It isn't until Wednesday morning that Quinn is brave enough to ask her daughter why she didn't tell her about the girlfriend.

"It's not that I don't trust you, mom, I just wasn't ready for anybody to know yet." Chloe said as she plays with her toast. Everyone else conveniently decided to have breakfast elsewhere that morning. "Everybody sees me as the fashion club princess and if they knew, I wouldn't be that person anymore." Could it really be that simple?

Quinn tried to think back to what it was like to be 16. She remembered hiding the fact that she studied because fashion club members don't do that sort of thing. They certainly didn't kiss other girls.

"You are always going to be you regardless of who you are sleeping with. I'm always going to love you and support you regardless." Quinn said as she hugged Chloe. "Are you sleeping with anybody?" Quinn asked as she pulls out of the hug.

"Mother!" Chloe was so scandalized that Quinn knew the answer was probably yes. "Even if my girlfriend was in a mental happy place, I would not answer that question." At least, that answered her question on the status of her daughter's relationship.

"I'm your mother. I have a right to know these things."

"Alexis needs my friendship right now more than anything else, so I'm not going to worry about that stuff right now. However, if we did jump back into a physical relationship, I wouldn't tell you." Chloe said defensively. Although, the phrasing of that pretty much confirmed her suspicions.

"Do you know what a dental dam is?" Quinn asked with worry.

"Do you know that the condoms in the bouquet that aunt Daria sent you were for decorative purposes only and should not be used as a prophylactic?" Before Quinn could mentally recover from that expert use of a diversionary tactic, Chloe was able to successfully make it out of the house without further conversation. She knew she should have listened to her boyfriend and scheduled a family therapy session.

Unfortunately, the diversionary tactic worked a little too well and instead of working on chapter 8 of the aptly titled the _Reeducation of Ashley_ she was searching for the condoms that came from the bouquet.

She still had a few because she and David have been using the giant pack that was a gift from Lindy and really they haven't had much time for private time. Sure enough, there was an actual warning label on the condoms. She didn't see this before but she was a little preoccupied at the time.

However, it was just one time and Quinn wasn't that worried, even if the smell of her favorite beverage was starting to make her a little nauseous.

Kat made Quinn look at her calendar after she threw up again. That was when Quinn realized that she was two days late. With everything going on, she's sort of missed that she missed **it**. She told herself that in light of the stress of the current situation, it was perfectly normal for her to not have her monthly intrusion.

Quinn was safely in denial land two hours later, trying to concentrate on the _Reeducation of Ashley,_ when she got a phone call from her boyfriend telling her to come to the school as soon as possible. It must be serious because he wasn't able to tell herwhat happened over the phone. That was never a good sign. She wondered if Kat called him after the incident with the calendar.

"Did my daughter's or my assistant tell you about the fact that the bouquet condoms were for decorative purposes only? If that's why I'm here then it wasn't that urgent. I'm only two days late." Quinn said nervously as she walked into her boyfriend's office. Because of that nervousness, she missed the fact that Dr. Lane was there.

"I said something like that about 16 1/2 years ago and then I had Madison." Monique quipped.

"I'm not pregnant." Quinn said defensively. David was giving her a very funny look at this point.

"I'm just going to let you guys talk for a few minutes. We can talk about what happened this morning as soon as you know if I need to look at the LHS paternity leave policy." Monique joked as she left but it did little to break the tension in the room.

"What did Bianca and/or Chloe do this time that was so bad that I had to meet with you and Dr. Lane?" Quinn asked trying to get her boyfriend to forget about all her comments about being late and defective condoms.

"I will tell you as soon as you take that." He said handing her a pregnancy test.

"I'm not pregnant. Wait, you keep a pregnancy test in your desk?" Quinn asked in puzzlement.

"I'm a high school guidance counselor/Young Adult psychologist. I'm trained to recognize the classic symptoms. As sad as it is to say, you are not the first woman to walk into this office displaying pregnancy symptoms, including a late menstruation cycle. Though, this is the first time that I have been the potential father." David told her as he literally put the test in her hand and closed her fingers around it. "You got sick on my shoes in New York. I was going to ask you to take one anyway, but I got distracted."

"Can't you just tell me about what Bianca did first?" Quinn asked almost pleading, not really wanting to deal with the possibility of new children when she was having trouble dealing with the ones she already had.

"Just humor me." David said as he kissed her on the lips. His tongue could convince her to do just about anything.

"Fine, but I'm only doing this because I love you. Quinn said as she begrudgingly took the box into David's private bathroom. Seriously, do you know how hard it is to pee on a stick on-demand?

"You know you're taking the fact that you may very well be a father quite well." Quinn said as she now washes her hands.

"Well if I'm going to accidentally get someone pregnant due to defective contraceptives at least it's somebody that I can see myself spending the rest of my life with." David said as he kissed her on the forehead.

"I will give you bonus points for saying that before I see two blue lines." Quinn sorted of joked, even though she was panicking on the inside. "You have at least two more minutes before we find out that there is nothing whatsoever to worry about, so if you could please tell me why I was called down here in the first place, that would be good." Quinn demanded.

"I'm only telling you this now because it will keep you from panicking about the results." David said in resignation before he began. "We are not sure which fashion club member told the entire school the real reason why Alexis is an LMC, but everyone knows." David sounded very worried. Quinn was personally hoping that most of the students will forget all about this by next August when school started again.

"They know Alexis and Chloe's preferences, as well?" Quinn asked and David nodded his head in affirmation. Considering certain things that her other daughter has told her this may not be such a good thing. Quinn was a teenager not that long ago and she remembered how cruel they really were. She pretended not to know her sister for the sake of popularity. She will need to have the Ben & Jerry's ready for when Chloe got home. She just hoped nobody spray-painted something obscene on her locker.

"It could have been a lucky guess. Considering all the seminars going on, someone could piece everything together." She suggested.

"It's possible but there are too many details that are right." David said gravely.

"Okay, that's not good. However, when you called me you mentioned that Bianca was involved. What does she have to do with that?"Quinn asked in puzzlement.

"This morning in gym class Sandy Matheson, a member of the cheerleading squad, called Chloe the D word along with some other similar slurs, before saying that she wished that Alexis would have succeeded Friday night." That was one of the few classes that the girl shared and therefore Quinn had a pretty good idea of what happened. She's just glad she's not speaking with the police at the moment.

"What did Bianca do that warranted getting called into the principal's office?" Quinn asked as her cell phone timer went off.

"Don't you want to check that?" David asked her.

“I think it's better if we stay focused on the children we already have first." Quinn said with a sigh.

"Good plan. Do you realize that you said 'we'?" David asked blinking in shock.

"I'm a package deal." After Saturday, Quinn realizes that the place she really went wrong with Jonathan was not making it clear to him that her daughters were her first priority.

"I realize that. And I'm ready for it, even if there is one more." David said giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Okay, so now tell me what did Bianca do, because I'm sure it was her? She didn't break into the girl's Facebook account and post something that could get her picked up by Secret Service?" That would be such a Bianca thing to do.

"Bianca punched her out cold." Okay Quinn is a little surprised that Bianca resorted to physical violence.

"She actually hit her?" Quinn asked for clarification, still in shock.

"Yes," David confirmed.

"How many days is she suspended?" Quinn asked the inevitable question. She was already thinking of her own punishment for fighting.

"Normally, it would be five days, but in light of what triggered it and the fact that Monique realizes that your daughter doesn't like most of her classmates and would see that as a vacation, she has decided to do an alternative punishment." That was certainly true. Bianca loves to learn, she just hated everything else about high school.

"What is the punishment?"

"Sandy Matheson, is going to have to perform 50 hours of community service at the LGBT charity of Joey's choice in addition to sitting through my tolerance seminar again. The school has a zero tolerance policy for slurs that are homophobic, races, or that are generally discriminatory in nature." Quinn was satisfied with that punishment for the other girl because it may be more effective than suspension or detention.

"I'm satisfied with that." Quinn said after a moment.

"Bianca will receive one day of in school suspension, only because physical assault of a student automatically requires suspension, as well as, a 10 page research paper on Mahatma Gandhi and nonviolence as a mechanism for revolution, due next week." Again, this would probably be a much more effective punishment than suspension, even if Quinn took away every electronic device in the house.

"Isn't that more appropriate for a college student?" Quinn asked David.

"Your daughter is essentially a college student already. That is why Monique had to give her an assignment that was much more advanced and appropriate for someone of her intelligence."

"So I guess this means that she gets to keep her computer this time." Great, now Quinn had to think of another punishment. Maybe her mom can use a second free intern this summer.

"Pretty much," David said walking to the bathroom.

"You're going to make me look now?" Quinn said following behind her boyfriend, not really wanting to.

"Only because you don't want to." David said actually pulling her forward.

"Fine," Quinn said but on the inside, she was shaking. "Although, I still say this is just a waste of a pregnancy test." Quinn said grabbing the test from the sink only to see the obvious two blue lines. At that, the test wordlessly fell from her fingers and she essentially collapsed onto the toilet.

"I'm going to take that as a yes you are pregnant." David said as he knelt beside her and wrapped an arm around her.

"Yes and my sister is a dead woman." Quinn said practically shaking as she started to wrap her mind around the situation.

"You are blaming your sister for this?" David asked slightly shocked.

"She was the one that gave us the faux condoms. Who in their right mind would make condoms that are not good for actual sex?"

"Quinn, take a deep breath and calm down. Actually, on second thought, let us go in to my office so you can lie down." He said pulling her up from the toilet.

"I will not calm down, I will be as angry as I want. I'm fucking pregnant. I can barely deal with two teenagers, how am I going to deal with the baby?" Quinn said in absolute panic as she sat on David's couch.

"Why are you not freaking out?" She asked looking at her boyfriend.

"As I stated earlier, I have been suspicious since the incident on the train Friday. You got sick from the fumes of a hamburger. Second, I may have got a strange email Monday from a certain daughter of yours when you didn't break out the tampons. I did my freaking out then."

"It is nice to know your normal like the rest of us." Quinn quipped as her breathing started to return to normal.

"Also, since I have been at LHS, I have dealt with at least two or three teen pregnancies every year. The way I see it, an accidental pregnancy by two financially stable adults in their late 20s and early 30s, especially one who already has two kids, is a lot better than the 14-year-old that came into my office last week after she missed her period. You're pregnant by somebody that loves you and will stand by you, completely regardless. I'm pretty sure that she's pregnant because she was raped by a family member." When you put it in those terms, she should not be panicking. She feels sad but she knows that's not really anything new. There were rumors of something like that happening when she was in School but Ms. Lee quickly had the student removed. Dr. Lane would never do that because, at the very least, it would be hypocritical. Now LHS was the school you wanted to be at if you found yourself in that situation.

"You love me?" Quinn asked looking up at him.

"I've told you that before." David said as he rubbed soothing circles on her back.

"Yes, but that was before the condom broke." Quinn quipped.

"That doesn't change anything except the fact that I want to move in with you. It'll be easier for me to run out and get you orange soda and Five Chicks' French fries in the middle of the night." His words comfort her for some reason.

"Why do you think I'm going to send you out for French fries and orange soda? It’s going to be ice cream."

"I know you too well." Quinn just pouted at that. "It's going to be okay. You just survived parenting 501 this last week, with everything going on with Chloe and Alexis, I think you can handle dirty diapers."

"No we dealt with parenting 501 this week and you and I will be dealing with dirty diapers." She corrected him.

"Exactly," he said kissing her cheek.

"You do know my father is going to try to kill you?" Quinn said thinking about Jake's reaction. Maybe she should invite Doctor Michael over just in case the worst happens.

"Probably."

"At least, I now know what to talk about tomorrow on Sandi's disaster of a morning television show, if my appearance is not canceled. Apparently, she's still MIA but my publicist has not been formally contacted yet." She joked.  
"You know you should wait at least three months until you start telling people." David suggested.

"I know. My sister brought that point up multiple times during our argument last week. I've been thinking about going public for a while but I do not think I can wait much longer. I don't want to have to be pregnant as Melody Powers. I think it's time that I stop hiding behind my pen name. Especially, if I'm going to do a graphic novel à la _American Splendora_." Quinn said quietly.

"So you're going to be doing _LawndaleSplendora: The Pregnancy Year_?" David joked.

"I'm thinking of calling the series, _Life Happens When You're Drinking Coffee at Starbucks_. Most of the major events in my life have happened there. I even found you there again." She said kissing him on the cheek.

"Good point. However, you do realize that you're going to have to give up coffee for the duration of your pregnancy?" Her mouth opened in horror at that.

"Decaf, lots of lots of decaf."

To be concluded.


	17. Chapter 14: Life Happens When You are Forced to Drink Decaf Coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read the revised version of the story. This is the final chapter of Life Happens When You're Drinking Coffee at Starbucks.   
> This was originally supposed to be a one shot but it somehow ended up way over 100,000 words. (Yet for me, this is a medium-size story.)   
> Also thank you to Teddy Bear and GothicChevy who both served as betas on this story.

After two more pregnancy tests and an emergency visit to a gynecologist, that Doctor Mike and Monique discreetly recommended, it was confirmed that Quinn was really pregnant. As expected, it was the condom bouquet that screwed her over. (Why did she think having sex in the family room was a good idea?) If she didn't want her future child to get a complex, she would consider suing.

Her mother would just love that. It would give her a distraction from the divorce. It was going badly. This week Eric alleged that Helen was already cheating on him with Jake. Therefore, it didn't matter what he did with the 18-year-old intern. Although, Helen finding out that she was going to be a biological grandmother would probably provide the same distraction, especially if she tried to kill David afterwards. Quinn has been dreading her reaction since the initial pregnancy test. It was not going to be a very pleasant conversation.

In light of the fact that she had a miscarried once before and because miscarriages run in the family, they were going to keep this quiet until she hit the three-month mark. August was going to be interesting this year. Actually, she was keeping the news to herself because she didn't want her father to have another heart attack (or for her mom to tell her what a complete failure she is again). Okay, she didn't want her father to try to strangle David and have another heart attack because he overexerted himself. In Quinn's mind, she knows there's no way he's going to take this well. If one of her daughters showed up pregnant, due to carelessness or a birth control mishap, she would be furious and most likely need legal representation fast.

She is sure the twins will be okay with it. God knows, that they have wanted a baby sibling since they were old enough to talk. However, she couldn't deal with the constant teasing. She would be inundated with condom jokes until graduation at least as soon as they found out. Also, she will probably not be able to get through another sexual health talk without this little incident being thrown in her face. It so wasn't her fault. She was on the pill faithfully from 16 until 26 when she started getting migraines that made her arms go numb. After the divorce, she never went on something else because she wasn't planning on having sex anytime soon. Of course, the twins will completely ignore this during their teasing.

The teasing would be especially horrible because both were currently on punishment and therefore home a lot more. Due to beating up another girl named Sandy, Bianca was on restriction until the end of June. That meant no iPhone, no new iPad unless she paid for it from money from her job, no computer games, no going over to Madison's house, and computer use was strictly limited to her job and class. She was also working for as many hours as allowed by law during the summer.

Chloe was also in trouble. For not telling Quinn about the girlfriend, they were having forced mother/daughter time. David suggested lots of family card and board games. Chloe was banned from spending quality time with the fashion club, mostly because they still weren't sure who told everything to the entire school. The only people Chloe could hang out with were her BFF Evan and a still hospitalized Alexis. (Quinn was only allowing that for the mental health of both girls.) David also said that they needed to do family therapy. Because he suggested it, Quinn was making David come as well. Quinn considers it a small miracle that the girls did not asked questions about her strange behavior (i.e. morning sickness) during the session. Okay, actually Quinn thinks it's a miracle that Bianca didn't scare the Doctor away. That was probably only because David was there and had the ability to keep her from going into full-blown Bianca mode.

* * *

Because she survived that first session without the pregnancy secret coming out, she assumed that she may be able to keep everything quiet until the three-month mark. That didn't happen.

Quinn is sure that the twins already knew. Chloe and Bianca were just a little too enthusiastic during the family meeting where she told the girls that David was moving in. Also, there's the fact that both twins went through the pantry and got rid of every single thing that you can't eat while pregnant. All the artisan cheeses that she got at the cheese shop down the street were now gone. She's pretty sure at least a few of those she could still eat but they were being paranoid. They got rid of her hard salami. They got rid of the good coffee from Columbia. The vast amounts of heart healthy salmon that they had been eating were now missing from the freezer. Then again, that may have been her father's doing. He's not a fan. They even switched to caffeine free soda.

In addition, they were forcing her to eat healthier than normal. Yesterday, she had a salad for breakfast. She was waiting for Bianca to bring out a copy of  _What to Expect When You're Expecting_ any moment now. Yet neither girl mentioned the P word. She wondered if David had a talk with the girls. Anyways, she was grateful for it.

Surprisingly enough, it was her father that figured it out next. Considering he sometimes forgot what color her hair was in high school, she was kind of shocked. Apparently, the combination of her boyfriend moving in and her changing her habits was enough to make him suspicious.

A week after she found out she was pregnant and five days after the family meeting, her dad took her out for pancakes to break the news that he was moving out. Let's just say she was so shocked that she overturned her orange juice.

"You're not leaving because David is moving in? Unlike my first bad choice, David understands how important family is to me." Quinn said reassuring her father once she was done cleaning up the orange juice.

"That's not why I'm moving out. Although for the sake of my heart, it is probably best that I not see him coming out of your room disheveled." Jake joked.

"Good point. That goes for you and the new girlfriend as well. I am still trying to repress the fact that you currently have a hickey from your girlfriend." She said pointing to the mark. Bianca pointed it out this morning, in the most embarrassing way possible. "I'm having difficulties wrapping my mind around the fact that you have a girlfriend and I actually like Cassandra." Actually, Quinn loves Cassandra. The woman was so nice; she even brought over dinner last night. It was kind of hard to hate her.

"I'm glad that you like her because I really like her too. However, I think we both need our privacy." Quinn agreed with him.

"But are you able to live alone?" That was what worried Quinn the most. Her dad's bad habits ,such as his cheeseburger diet, led to his second heart attack. She would really like for him to stick around long enough to meet his first biological grandchild.

"Actually, where are you going to live? Mom has essentially taken over your condo. Lindy is supposed to start redecorating as soon as she's done working on Stacy's house." Quinn said as she took a drink of the new orange juice that just arrived.

Because he felt so guilty, Mr. Richardson was paying for the bathroom to be redone, as quickly as possible. He was also paying to have the guest room turned into a permanent bedroom for Alexis. According to Chloe, both Alexis and her father decided it would be best for her mental health if she stayed with Stacy when she was released from mental health rehab. Stacy and Charles have been staying at the Richardson compound during the renovation. (Neither individual has seen Sandi since the incident.) Everything should be done by the time Alexis and/or baby Tiffany get out of the hospital.

"Once she starts remodeling, it is not really my condo anymore." Jake joked again.

"Good point." Quinn said as she looked over the menu one more time. She was currently trying to find something that wouldn't make her nauseous. Currently, she cannot handle the smells of eggs, pork products, hash browns, or maple syrup. Also, she only likes her eggs over easy and that's going to be off the menu until February.

"So where are you going to live?" She was hoping he wouldn't say at his girlfriend's house. It was just too soon. Some would say that she and David got together fast but they've known each other for 12 years and well she's pregnant.

"Your next door neighbor, Mr. Chan, got a new job in New York." Her father said putting his menu down. Okay, at least that meant he would be nearby.

"So are you renting or buying?" She asked.

"Buying, I figured this way I can be close enough that you can keep an eye on me but I will be far enough away that I won't have chest pains every time I see you and David acting like to young people in love." He said with his nose scrunched.

"Or so I don't have to see old people in love." Quinn said.

"You're not the only ones being mercilessly teased. Yesterday, the girls mentioned they were perfectly okay with having an aunt or uncle that is significantly younger than them." He said referring to the twins.

"They really would say that." Quinn said with a sigh. "You're not considering it?" She asked after a moment.

"I'm not planning on it." Considering that she wasn't planning on getting pregnant, she did not find much comfort in that. Cassandra was in her mid-40s, so it really should not be a problem.

"Then I give my blessing as long, as you promise to get a cleaning service and come over for dinner." That's when the waitress showed up. As soon as Quinn ordered decaf coffee and the healthy whole-grain pancakes with fresh fruit her father gave her a very strange look.

"Did you just order decaf?" He asked.

"David is making me cut down. He says I'm too hyper." Quinn said as an excuse not wanting her father to know caffeine and therefore coffee was now the number one thing on her no-no list. She was already coming up with ideas how to use that in the graphic novel. That answer satisfied her father until she started gagging when he cut into his over easy eggs and she quickly ran to the bathroom.

"You're pregnant!" Her father exclaimed when he follows her into the ladies room. When some old lady made some nasty comment about him being in there, he said that he wasn't going to leave his little girl sick and in their alone. She stopped complaining when she realized how sick Quinn really was.

"No, I think I have some weird stomach virus." Quinn lied to her father. She tried that yesterday with Britney during their very exclusive interview the day before. Because Sandi is still MIA and she wanted the truth to come out before she starts showing, she decided to give Britney the exclusive. Besides maybe doing something nice for a real friend is better than getting vengeance. Unfortunately, she did not believe Quinn. If she can't fool Britney Taylor than she was in real trouble.

"Your mother said that to me about 29 years ago." He said with a smile.

"I'm not three months yet." Quinn said in absolute defeat as she slid down to the floor and pulled out her emergency bottle of mouthwash. "Because of what happened to Daria, I did not want to tell anybody yet."

"You shouldn't be worried about that." Her father said putting an arm around her.

"It already happened once." Quinn told her father and thankfully, he did not ask about this.

"I assume that this was not planned?" He asked instead.

"Did you know that there was such a stupid thing as novelty condoms that are not really prophylactics?" Quinn said after she spat out the mouthwash. She felt better already.

"Yes, I found such a wrapper in the family room couch. I'm just glad it was you." Her father said with a strange expression.

"Me too, I'm not ready to be a grandmother. I'm terrified of being a mom." Quinn said with a shiver.

"You're already a mom." Her father said simply.

"Yes, but I didn't have to do dirty diapers." What she really wanted to say was she didn't have to keep the baby safely inside her for nine months. She already failed miserably once. After reading about the increased probability of miscarriage with high consumption of caffeine, she has gone completely cold turkey.

"True, but you have to deal with girlfriends and other related teenage crises. Dirty diapers are easy, teenagers are hard."

"Especially when they do things that result in you having to deal with dirty diapers." Quinn quipped.

"You were perfectly fine the first time. You will be perfectly fine this time. Also, you won't be alone." Her father said in reassurance. "You will not be alone?" He asked after a moment

"Not at all. Why do you think David is moving in?" She said after a moment. "It was his idea."

"Good."

"You're not going to make good on your fret to kill him if he got me pregnant before the wedding?" She asked after a moment.

"Not at this time." He said helping her get up from the bathroom floor. Once they returned to the table, there server brought out what was referred to as the 'pregnant lady special' of dry whole-grain toast and peanut butter.

* * *

Her mother figured it out about a week later, for the same reason, when she invited herself over for dinner on the last day of the school year. For the last few days, Quinn has been very good about ordering lots of different things so people won't automatically assume she's pregnant because she has sworn off coffee and all other caffeine. (The manager at her favorite Starbucks, Ivana, actually asked her if she was pregnant the day before and then emailed her a list of the best baby friendly decaffeinated drinks.)

Unfortunately, being the expert lawyer that her mother was she picked up on that behavior change. Okay, maybe it was the fact that the bucket of fried chicken that her mother brought resulted in Quinn spending 15 minutes in the upstairs bathroom, in addition to the fact that she was drinking something that was essentially an alcohol free screwdriver. Despite the fact that her mom brought champagne to celebrate the fact that Eric agreed to settle. It turns out the intern he was screwing was really 17. Still perfectly legal in Maryland but it just looked bad and therefore, he didn't want to go to court. Her mom would be getting the house, the cars, and a good portion of their joint bank account. So of course, to celebrate her mom would bring the good champagne that she could not touch. The twins got to have more alcohol than she did (Half a glass each).

Chloe was kind enough to give her a Sprite and bag of crackers when Quinn finally made it outside after utilizing vast quantities of mouthwash. She could hear her mother screaming at David for being so irresponsible in the background. The good champagne was probably the only reason why she wasn't screaming more.

"You already know?" She asked her daughter and Chloe just nodded her head yes.

"I figured you would tell me when you were ready and Alexis told me that you're supposed to wait on telling people until after the first trimester. That's what Stacy did." Chloe said with a shrug.

"You talk about me with your girlfriend?" Quinn asked a little surprised.

"We have to talk about something. We're still avoiding talking about why she is in a long-term treatment facility for depression and the bathroom incident. You have never been one to push us to open up; therefore, we decided to do the same thing. I mean, seriously, how long did you know about me not being heterosexual?" Chloe asked.

"I really didn't know about Alexis." Chloe just gave her a strange look at that response. "I thought it was a possibility in sixth grade when I got called into the principal's office after you punched out that silly boy who tried to French kiss you."

"I think that's when I figured it out too. It was horrible." Chloe said slightly disgusted.

"What do you mean the condoms were defective?" She heard Helen scream from below.

"I think you need to rescue dad-David now." She instantly caught Chloe's Freudian slip.

"You really do think of him as your father?" Quinn asked as she started to move to the stairs.

"Other than Grandpa Jake, there really hasn't been that many guys in my life. Besides, it will throw the baby off if I call him David." Chloe said as an excuse.

"We have eight months if we're lucky." Quinn mumbled to herself.

"I need to practice." Chloe said as they started down the stairs.

* * *

It only took Quinn 20 minutes, and a lot of bourbon, to convince her mom that it was a very bad idea to try to sue the company for using fake condoms in a condom bouquet. It took David another 30 to convince her that he wasn't just going to run away. She wished that her dad was there but he had a date with Cassondra. Of course, all the accusations of stupidity disappeared when her mother and Quinn found out that the twins were the ones that sent the condom bouquet. She can't prove that they intentionally gave her defective condoms but they were still not getting iPads this summer. The possibility alone was enough to get her mom to back off, just a little. Okay, maybe it was the fact that she caught daddy kissing Cassondra in the driveway. Regardless, Quinn was happy for the reprieve.

By the time David actually moved in a few days later, Quinn believes that she was better at keeping the whole thing a secret. Or maybe, the twins sent out a mass email telling people to stop asking her if she was pregnant because it was a sensitive subject. She could so see them doing that just so they could get an iPad this summer. Both girls were seriously trying to get on her good side.

It kind of surprised her that David moving in was not really that much of an adjustment. When Jonathan moved in, it was insane. He took over half of her closet. He made her get brand-new furniture for the bedroom. Actually, he requested that they remodel half the house to make it more 'man' friendly and he wanted a car elevator for the garage. She even had to change the time of the day that they ate dinner, so it could fit better into Jonathan's schedule. She had to hire a chef to help take care of Jonathan's special culinary needs. You have to be careful what you eat when you're trying to pretend to be a 16-year-old teenager when you're pushing 24.

David sort of fell into place like he was the missing piece of the family, even his furniture complemented hers. Because her teenage daughters refuse to touch the family room couch again, they decided to switch it out for David's couch. Because, really, what child wanted to sit on the couch where their baby brother or sister was conceived? His bedroom set mixed well with her bedroom set. Actually, she gave her father a lot of the stuff in the house that she didn't quite like and switched it out for David's. He needed it because Mr. Chan was leaving a lot sooner than expected and Quinn doubted her dad had the desire to go furniture shopping. If it wasn't for Lindy, his old condo would have consisted of mostly card tables and lawn furniture.

Chloe was happy about that because she got to take over her dad's old bedroom. Quinn wasn't sure if she wanted her most likely sexually active teenager to have a bedroom on the first floor but Chloe did have the room that would make the best nursery and Bianca would not give up the padded room for anything. Chloe was currently picking out colors for the nursery. At least this was better than the wedding planning, which has thankfully stopped.

The best part about David now living with her, was she had somebody to bring her saltines and pull back her hair every time she was Baby sick. Okay, now she seriously believes that adoption is so much easier than childbirth. Dealing with emotionally scarred adolescents is so much easier than pregnancy.

Of course, when she sees Charles and Stacy's faces when they finally bring baby Tiffany home she realized that all the morning sickness and snide jokes from certain teenagers would be worth it in the end.

Joey helpd her and Chloe plan a welcome home party for baby Tiffany and Alexis. Surprisingly enough, both girls were released on the same day. There were lots of gifts including some very big apology presents from Mr. Richardson in the form of cars and college funds. There was another bouquet of red roses with an anonymous 'I'm sorry' note. Of course, this time it contained a check for $20,000 that will become the baby's college fund. Alexis received the same thing in addition to the car keys that Mr. Richardson gave her in person the day before. (He wasn't there today at her request.) She almost ripped up the check before common sense kicked in and she decided to give it to baby Tiffany instead.

When Quinn saw Alexis holding on to baby Tiffany she can see what her daughter sees in the girl. She's a much prettier girl when she's happy. Quinn does not believe she has seen the girl happy before. She's also never seen her so nice to others. Maybe, what Quinn saw before was just an act. She could see happiness in her face when she was with Chloe.

She can also see sorrow in the same eyes once she realized that the other half of the fashion club decided not to show up. They're still not sure which member leaked what happened but the fallout wasn't as bad as everyone expected. Maybe, it helped that their star All-American quarterback also decided to come out. Evan went to the prom with his senior boyfriend, who just happened to be the star basketball player headed to GW on full scholarship.

The country club moms for intolerance (without Sandi) flooded Monique's office with complaints in an effort to get Evan kicked off the team but she essentially told the group to go fuck themselves. Actually, she literally told the group that before reminding them that they would have to deal with the full wrath of the Sloan family if they didn't shut up. Angier Sloane saw Evan as the type of son he always wanted to have and you really did not want to make him angry.

Students who did something similar had to deal with gym class detention with Joey. Most of the students couldn't even breathe by the time he was done. Hopefully, by the time Alexis returns in August students will know better than to say something stupid.

After the present giving was out-of-the-way, Alexis got to see her new room. That's what made her the most happy.

"Why did you do this?" She asked Charles as she held onto Chloe's hand for dear life.

"I had a family a lot like yours. My dad was never there and my mom left a long time ago. I always wanted a place that was really home. I want you to be able to think of this place as home." Charles told her.

"I already do." She said with tears streaking down her face. Chloe responded by kissing her on the cheek.

Okay, so Quinn wasn't completely comfortable with Alexis but there was potential there. However, she can never get her daughter pregnant, so that's one point in her favor.

* * *

"Thanks for letting me use the car." Quinn said as she gave the keys back to her brother-in-law but he was quickly kidnapped by her teenage daughters. Seriously, they absolutely love their favorite boy band member of an uncle. When they were little, they had pictures of him all over the room and that was before they were related by marriage and adoption.

After miscarriages, tour mishaps, and other crazy things her sister was there to spend the entire summer in Maryland, beginning with the Fourth of July holiday. She was staying next door at her father's new house. While the twins were showing off their new rooms to their favorite uncle, Quinn was having coffee with her sister in the kitchen. She's pretty sure her boyfriend was out back with her parents fighting over the menu for the evening. Or maybe he was back there refereeing their weekly fight over Cassandra. It was starting to lessen now that Eric was now the scandal of Lawndale County when his second ex-wife leaked the thing with the 17-year-old intern.

Because by the first week of July people stopped bringing up the decaf thing, Quinn started getting complacent. She didn't think twice when she started brewing the best decaf coffee she could find.

"So you're pregnant?" Her sister asked about five minutes into their conversation.

"Yes." She said not even thinking about lying. It would become obvious as soon as she threw up for the first time. “I blamed you at first because I thought you sent the defective condom bouquet or at least I thought you did. But I was most likely set up by the twins."

"I would have sent you something that tacky for humiliation purposes; unfortunately, I'm not as clever as my nieces. I don't even want to know how they could be responsible for something like that unless they slipped you fertility drugs."

"Defective condoms and David has super-sperm. The first time I had sex in 16 months and he managed to get me pregnant." Quinn laughed as she said it because by July the situation seems somewhat funny.

"Oh," her sister said taking another drink of the decaf pomegranate tea that Quinn was forcing everyone in the house to drink.

"Are you mad at me?" Quinn asked after the silence became uncomfortable

"Why would I be mad at you?" Daria asked. "Unlike you, I understand that you're supposed to wait a couple of months before you start telling people."

"Okay, I'm sorry for how I acted. I can now blame everything on pregnancy hormones. Apparently, I was a couple of weeks at that point." Quinn said sheepishly.

"So what was your excuse for most of high school?" Daria deadpan.

"Stupidity. You're not upset that I'm pregnant totally by accident? Especially, after you know…" Quinn asked again not saying the M word.

"No. I'm upset about losing the baby, but we are going to try again. Also, Jane keeps telling me it is stupid for me to be jealous of you."

"Really you shouldn't be. It took me a few tries to find a good man. You found him in one. Although, I thought you said you never wanted kids?" Quinn said kind of surprised. Her sister once joked about asking her future husband to get a vasectomy as a condition of the prenup.

"I can change my mind. They say life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. At least that's what Trent told me, so it probably came from a song. When I was Bianca's age, I was planning on spending my life writing obscured novels, that would make Camus seem accessible, in an undisclosed location in Montana. Instead, I married a boy band member and I'm writing romantic comedy. Why did I agree to adapt your  _Divorcee on a Ledge_? By the way, you are helping me work on that this summer."

"That's not a romantic comedy and you're doing the adaptation because you are the only person I trust not to change into one just because the studio wants it that way. The fact that you're going to consult me is the other reason why I lobbied for you to do the adaptation since they won't let me do it myself." Quinn said grabbing the cookies that her mother brought from the vegan bakery. They were pretty good.

"Good point." Daria said after a moment.

"I get what you're trying to say. In my case it's 'life happens when you're drinking coffee at Starbucks'. I think that's what I'm going to call the graphic novel, if I can convince my idiot publishers to get over their 'women do not read comic books' bias." She complained.

"You do spend a lot of time there or you did. I assume you know that you cannot have coffee anymore?"

"That's how everybody figured out I was pregnant." Her sister actually smiled at that. "What I'm saying is, like you, I thought I was going to end up somewhere else. When I was 16, I thought I was going to grow up to be a fashion model and married a member of  _Boys or Guys_. When I was 21, I thought I was going to be single and childless for the rest of my life, as a Hollywood insider. When I was 26, I thought Jonathan and I would spend eternity together. At 28, I realize that I think I just need to stop planning things out." Quinn said wisely.

"Who would've thought 12 years ago that I would be the one married to a boy band member and you're the one married to a doctor?" Daria asked.

"We're not married yet." Quinn said defensively.

"The key word is yet. You just said you wanted to stop making plans. You never know." Daria said as she finished her tea.

"Good point."

"The important thing is, are you happy?" She asked.

"Actually, I am."

"Okayk now that the required family bonding is out the way and I finished all the tea, what else is there to do? How long do you think it will take the twins to show off their rooms to their favorite uncle?" Daria asked.

"They could be a while. David has instituted family game night. I have everything you can imagine. We can always play cards or something. Bianca left a deck on the table last night." Quinn said pointing to the pack on the kitchen table.

"I'm sure we can convince mom and dad to play. It will keep them from driving my boyfriend crazy with arguments about Cassandra." Quinn suggested. Anything, was better than listening to her parents when they argued. At least, Helen was overprotective and not jealous at this point. Quinn was surprised when her sister just started laughing.

"Then again, maybe some things can be predicted years in advance." Her sister said smirking again.

* * *

"So that's the story of how I'm back here most likely for good." Quinn told the grave in front of her. Buried beneath was the body of Tiffany Ashley with the words 'she was beautiful, even if she never saw it' etched on the granite in front of her. She traced her fingers over the headstone again. 1982-2002, such a short life.

It was the week before school started again and she was just starting to not throw up all the time. Nor was she being hounded by the paparazzi after her coming out as herself. According to Britney, those members of the press that did not already know were a little too embarrassed to follow her around. The worst she had to deal with was signing the occasional autograph at the grocery store. Thankfully, there were no paparazzi following her now.

Her therapist boyfriend felt it was in her best interest to actually go to Tiffany's grave. The incident in June with Alexis, brought to the surface that she and Stacy had yet to deal with Tiffany's death completely. He felt it would be cathartic for her and Stacy. They chose today because this was supposed to be Tiffany's 28th birthday. She wasn't even 20 when she died.

"I wish you would've got to meet David." She told Tiffany. "I guess you did meet David, when he was your tutor but you never got to meet the real David. He's sweet in an insane way. He makes me laugh with his dry wit. He has transitioned into the father role pretty well for the twins. I wish you would have met them too. There are so many things I wish I would have done differently. Of course, the biggest one is I wish you were still here." Tears were running down her face at that. Thankfully, she had the good sense not to wear mascara.

"But despite, that I'm happy. I'm scared out of my mind at the thought of raising a baby but I have about six more months to get used to it. Even though I'm terrified I still want this. As of today, I'm officially beginning my second trimester." Quinn said happily. "During yesterday's baby check and ultrasound the doctors said that everything was fine. Also apparently, I'm going to get a second set of twins. I can't believe I am pregnant with twins." Quinn said with a laugh.

"After this, we are supposed to be going all the way to Virginia to the only Starbucks Lindy could find that will let us host a party there to tell everybody about the pregnancy officially. I think everybody but certain family members that we absolutely hate know about it, but whatever. However, David and I do get to surprise everybody with the fact that we are having twins. The big twins have no idea yet. I've always wanted to do a Starbucks party, celebrating the fact that I made it to the three-month Mark seem like a good idea when Lindsay suggested it. We don't have the gender but regardless somebody will end up with your middle name. Thank God it's gender-neutral." Quinn said crying again. That's when Quinn felt an arm wrapped around her. She instantly knew it was David.

"I think I'm ready to go now." She told her boyfriend. He was standing off by a tree as she had her private moment with Tiffany. Although, she did hear him snicker at least once when she told Tiffany about how they got together. They walked back to the car hand in hand to find baby Tiffany engaging in a mid afternoon snack.

"Sorry, she was hungry and I forgot to pack a bottle." Stacy said quickly covering herself with a shawl.

"It's okay. I have to get used to it." David said with a shrug.

"That's very true." Quinn said with a snort. "Okay, so how on earth do we get to the Starbucks in Pentagon Row? Why are we having this all the way in Virginia?" Quinn asked a few minutes later as she started fooling around with her GPS. She rarely goes into Virginia.

"It is the only one in the area that has enough space for the party and you were there two weeks ago when you took the girls to the 9/11 memorial. They are right by each other." David said smugly.

"There are like three Starbucks in that neighborhood. Which one?" She said sarcastically. David just rolled his eyes.

"I went there once before because there's an ice-skating rink. You love ice-skating." Stacy said but the way she was speaking was kind of odd. Why would Stacy babble about something like that? She seemed nervous for some reason.

"Considering its August and 102 outside, I don't think I would be able to ice-skate even if I could. That would be way too dangerous for the baby." Quinn said patting her stomach. She purposely used the singular form of baby because even Stacy did not know about the new twins yet. Surprisingly, she wasn't showing that much.

"We can go back winter 2011. I wonder if they make baby ice-skates?" David was giving her his 'don't even think about it' look at Stacy's suggestion.

"I'm not sure we will be able to. You'll be too busy with your new job. I can't believe Mr. Richardson gave you Sandi's old show." Because of the divorce and Sandi's Self-imposed exile  _Wake Up Maryland_  needed a brand-new host and it was going to be Stacy.

"Neither can I, it's going to be a disaster. We don't start until September but I'm absolutely petrified." Stacy sounded nervous but Quinn believed in her.

"We can talk about this later. Can you please give me the key?” David asked.

"I thought you had the keys?" She asked slightly confused.

"No, I gave it to you. You put it in your pocket because you didn't want to take a purse with you." Quinn quickly checked everywhere but couldn't find it. "I think they fell out when I knelt down on the grave." She said after a moment.

"I can go check." David offered.

"I'm pregnant, not an invalid. Check the car. I will check Tiffany's grave." She said with annoyance.

"I can go with you?" Stacy offered halfheartedly. She knew it would be best if Stacy did not go out there. She cried the entire time and she was only out there for five minutes before she used baby Tiffany as an excuse to go back to the car.

"I will be fine." Quinn said unbuckling her seatbelt. Quinn quickly walked back into the cemetery only to find the last person she ever expected to see there.

Nobody has seen Sandi since the incident that sent Alexis to the hospital; therefore, completely ruining Quinn's plans for ultimate humiliation and forcing her to come out as her alter ego with dignity and grace. Sandi even signed her divorce papers without a fight, much to Mr. Richardson shock. Actually, what was more shocking than seeing Sandi was the fact that she was crying. Maybe she does have a heart after all.

Because she didn't want to get in a fight at a cemetery, while three months pregnant, she decided it was best to hide behind the giant tree until Sandi was done. Quinn was so getting David his own set of keys for all of her cars after this.

Because she was stuck hiding behind a tree in the cemetery, she had no choice but to listen to Sandi's confession. The apology check and red roses did come from her. Sandi apparently had more regrets then Quinn. She regretted using Stacy to get ahead. She regretted marrying for money and not love. She regretted treating her stepdaughter like her mother treated her. She regretted acting like the country club mothers for intolerance just for the sake of fitting in and maybe consolidating her power. She didn't believe any of what she said but her friends all felt that way. That was her excuse for what happened in June or at least that's what she told Tiffany's grave. It was most likely the truth, because what's the point of lying to the dead? Because she was already suffering from pregnancy blather she couldn't wait any longer to get her keys. She knew they were right next to Sandi because she could see the bright key ring that she received for her very first Mother's Day lying in the grass.

"What are you doing here?" Sandi asked not making eye contact.

"Getting my keys." Quinn answered back sharply picking up her keys.

"You're not here to…" Sandi trailed off.

"Punish you for your many sins or rub in your face that I am more successful than you ever could be professionally and as a human being?" She prompted and Sandi nodded her head.

"I wanted to. If I saw you right after it happened, your plastic surgeon would still be working on the reconstruction. I fantasized about humiliating you on your show. Part of me wanted to make you the laughing stock of Maryland. Imagining your reaction when you found out that I've been on the New York Times bestseller list multiple times was my happy moment. However, it's been a few months and there's just no point for it now. Alexis is alive and happy. She's even rebuilding her relationship with her father. Hating you, just takes too much energy."

Last week, that rebuilding involved a very dysfunctional family dinner at the best restaurant in the region with both families. Thankfully, the press didn't find out about the food fight.

"That's good." Sandi said simply. This woman seemed so different from the person she confronted back in March.

"Are you really sorry for what you did or are you just sorry for what it cost you?" Quinn asked her sternly.

"Is there a difference?" She asked.

"If you can't tell the difference, than I feel sorry for you. If you can't see the difference, than someday you will end up in this cemetery and no one will come visit you. You can change if you really want to, but you can't get absolution from the dead, only the living. If you want our forgiveness, you have to earn it." Quinn said walking away and not looking back.

"What took so long?" David asked when she finally reached the car.

"Apparently, I dropped the keys somewhere on the pathway and I had to wait to a group of mourners passed by so I could start searching. I didn't want to disrupt the funeral." Quinn lied. "Can we just find a bathroom?" She asked as a way of getting out of the conversation.

* * *

Of course, David knew that she lied and confronted her later when they finally got to Arlington. Stacy even left them alone, making some obvious excuse to get out of the car as fast as possible.

"Okay, you know I lied about what happened at the cemetery. I ran in to Sandi and you'll be happy to know that I didn't knock her unconscious." She said nervously.

"You know you have a nasty habit of confessing to things that are completely unrelated to what I intend to ask you." He said with a smirk.

"I'm special like that but you love me anyway." She smiled back.

"Of course, I do. Because I do, I'm going to make you talk to me about what happened with Sandi later but right now I have something else to ask you." That's when he took out the ring that happened to be in the trademark blue box.

"You're not asking me just because you knocked me up?" Quinn asked in shock.

"No. I would wait until after the Babies are born but you would make us wait until the baby weight was off." David joked.

"I'm not that shallow. I would wait until I stopped breast-feeding because milk stains don't come out very easily." Quinn joked.

"Which is why we need to do this now because I'm too selfish to wait two years to marry you. I want to marry you today." Okay, that was just the most wonderful thing anyone has ever said to her.

"Good answer." Quinn said crying but unlike earlier today, these were happy tears.

"Can I take that as a yes?" He asked and Quinn just nodded her head.

"She said yes. Thank God, we need to get ready." Lindy said coming out of nowhere with a white bag followed by the twins and her mother. Said twins were dressed in what appeared to be bridesmaid gowns but in actually decent colors. She could see her sister and Jane wearing something similar but in not as tasteful colors.

"When you said you wanted to marry me today, that was more than hyperbole?" Quinn asked.

"Do you really want to plan a big wedding again?" He asked with a smile.

"Not really." She never wanted to do another cake tasting as long as she lived.

"Also, this way your mom doesn't have time to make us do a prenup and the press will not find out until Britney runs her exclusive."

"Good point." She said getting up. She was promptly inundated by various children and friends.

Of course, her mom did have time to do a prenup because really they should never ever underestimate Helen Morgendorffer (since Quinn came out as herself, the Morgendorffer last name is very hot and that's what her mom was going by again.) Her sister thought the whole prenup thing was very funny. She didn't think that several years ago when their mom did the same thing at her wedding. Just for that, she was ecstatic that they were making her sister wear a purple bridesmaid dress.

The wedding was actually outside the Starbucks in the Plaza. The Starbucks itself would have been too small for the friends and family that were there for the wedding, including a very angry aunt Rita who was mad because her daughter's third or was it fourth marriage imploded two days earlier. (Or maybe she was furious that Helen was there with Mr. Richardson, in what Quinn hopes is just a friends thing.) Fortunately, her aunt Amy was there to keep things from getting ugly. The place was decorated in white flowers and it was absolutely beautiful.

How they managed to pull this off, Quinn will never know. She had no idea that her soon-to-be husband and daughters have been planning this entire thing for the last month. The reason why this whole thing was happening in Virginia was because there was no waiting period to get married in that state.

She was currently sitting in the gym above the Plaza where she changed into her dress co-designed by Jane and Sierra. It was very avant-garde and perfect for a garden wedding in 102° heat. Best of all, it was designed to hide her baby tummy.

At her first wedding, she managed to drink 10 cups of coffee while waiting. This time she was on her second hot chocolate because milk was better for the baby (with a shot of decaf espresso in it, just to take the edge off of the coffee withdrawal). Thank God, there really was a Starbucks next door.

"Are you ready to do this again?" Her father said as he offered his arm.

"I am more ready than last time, even with the 45 minute notice. You're not going to try to talk me out of it?" She is now well aware that he really wanted to last time.

"Not this time. There is nothing for me to object to. I know David is with you for you and not because your some big fancy writer. That's all I ever wanted for you." He said kissing her on the cheek again.

"You're going to make me cry." Quinn said wiping her eyes.

"Although, it would be nice if you were not three months pregnant." Jake mumbled under breath.

"It was an accident, a good accident, but still an accident. Considering what I walked in on two weeks ago, you can't judge me." She replied with a sweet smile.

"I really should never have given you a key." Jake said as they walked towards the front to wait for the other bridesmaids to walk down a flight of stairs to the garden. From the top, she could see David smiling. Lindy, her de facto wedding planner, was telling her that she had 30 seconds before it was her time to go out.

"It doesn't matter." Quinn said quickly. "I'm just glad you're here to walk me down the aisle again."

"So am I." Her father said almost on the verge of tears as the music changed to the traditional walk down the aisle song. As she walked down the stairs to begin the next stage of her life, she couldn't help but be happy. Maybe she didn't have the life that she thought she would have when she was 16 but she had the life she had now and she loved every minute of it, even the bad parts. As she committed herself to the man that she was to spend the rest of her life with and loves with all her heart, Quinn realized that she would not have it any other way.

She still felt that way in February, when her water broke at another Starbucks due to the shock of finding out her father was getting remarried but she will let someone else tell that story. This is her happy ending.

The end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was originally going to be an epilogue from Daria's perspective but when I started working on it, I realized that it needed to be a separate short story. (Of course, remember my definition of short is anything under 50,000 words)  
> Look for Life Happens when you're not hiding in Montana (or something like that) in late spring 2013. I want a bit of a break before I start on the next part of the story.


End file.
